Gregg Jefferies’ Unique Feat of Drawing Rookie of the Year Votes in Two Different Seasons

Gregg Jefferies dominated the minors and burst onto the major league scene like few prospects before him

Gregg Jefferies generated a considerable amount of buzz coming up through the New York Mets farm system.  As the Mets first round draft pick in the June 1985 Amateur Draft and Baseball America’s Minor League Player of the Year for both 1986 and 1987, Jefferies was one of the most highly-touted prospects during the latter half of the 1980s.  With an excellent stint as a late season call up in 1988 followed by a respectable full-length 1989 campaign, Jefferies accomplished the unique feat of drawing Rookie of the Year votes in two different seasons.  Although Jefferies was not the recipient of either the 1988 or 1989 Rookie of the Year Award, the slugger’s initial campaigns represented the start to a fine career.  Going into the 2021 season, Jefferies remains the only player in the nearly 75 year history of the award to garner support in multiple years.

On June 3, 1985 the Mets selected the switch-hitting Jefferies out of Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo, California with the twentieth overall pick of the Amateur Draft.  Jefferies split his first professional season between Rookie League Kingsport and Single-A Columbia, batting a combined .326 and showcasing his speed by going 28 for 29 in base stealing attempts.  Jefferies followed up his debut campaign with a superb 1986, hitting a sizzling .353 with 111 RBI in 125 games, this time making stops at Single-A Columbia, High Single-A Lynchburg, and Double-A Jackson.  He further displayed his speed with 11 triples and 57 stolen bases.  At season’s end, Jefferies was named Minor League Player of the Year by Baseball America.  Jefferies spent 1987 at Double-A Jackson and continued to dominate minor league pitching, raising his batting average to .367 while adding more power to his game with 48 doubles and 20 home runs.  Once again, Jefferies was named Baseball America’s Minor League Player of the Year, making him the first to two-time winner of the award.  Jefferies’ outstanding season earned the budding prospect his first promotion to the majors.  Just over a month after celebrating his twentieth birthday, Jefferies made his major league debut for the defending World Champion Mets on September 6 at Dodgers Stadium.  Jefferies entered the game as a pinch hitter during the top of the 14th inning in a losing effort against the Los Angeles Dodgers—coincidentally, the team he rooted for during his childhood.  In his first major league at bat, Jefferies faced Dodgers reliever Brian Holton, who got the slugger to pop out to third baseman Phil Garner in foul territory.  Two nights later, Jefferies entered his first home game at Shea Stadium as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 5th inning.  Jefferies singled off Philadelphia Phillies starter Bruce Ruffin for his first career hit and was subsequently lifted from the game for pinch runner Keith Miller.  Jefferies made four additional late season appearances, each as pinch hitter, collecting two more hits to bat .500 over his first six career trips to the plate.

Now a two-time Minor League Player of the Year, Jefferies began drawing significant attention from the media.  The young phenom was profiled in the March 21, 1988 issue of Sports Illustrated which focused on the innovative and intense 17-part offseason training program designed by Jefferies’ father, Rich.  The unique regimen included such activities as standing chest-deep in a pool while swinging a sawed-off bat underwater, a practice that targeted quickening bat speed by building arm and wrist strength through resistance.  Another drill involved hitting tennis balls thrown from a 20-foot distance to improve concentration.  Sports Illustrated also highlighted the comparisons Jefferies was drawing to all-time great players such as Mickey Mantle and Pete Rose.  

After a late season call up to New York, the young slugger started the 1988 season in Triple-A Tidewater

Jefferies started the 1988 season in Triple-A Tidewater, primarily to work on his defense which was, at times, error prone.  For his first three years in the minors, Jefferies was mainly played at shortstop while also seeing limited action at both second and third base.  However, with Jefferies’ move to Triple-A, the organization decided to focus on playing him at third base.  During his first couple of months in Tidewater, Jefferies found himself in an unfamiliar position as he struggled to hit .200.  Nevertheless, by late August, Jefferies had raised his average to .282 when he earned his second call up to New York after an aggravated hamstring sent Mets second baseman Wally Backman to the 15-day disabled list.

Jefferies joined a veteran club, the majority of which had been members of the franchise’s 1986 championship team.  After finishing runner-up to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1987, the Mets appeared poised to return to the playoffs in 1988.  New York sat atop the NL East with a 76-52 record and a seven and a half game edge over the second place Pittsburgh Pirates on August 28 when Jefferies made his return to the Mets line up against the San Francisco Giants.  Although New York lost the game, 7-4, Jefferies immediately announced his presence by stroking a single and a double off veteran pitcher Mike Krukow in his first two at bats.  The following day, Jefferies took San Diego Padres hurler Eric Show deep for his first career home run.  In addition to his longball, Jefferies helped lead New York to a 6-0 rout of San Diego by smacking both a double and a triple to collect nine total bases and finish a single away from hitting for the cycle.  On September 2, Jefferies slugged career home run number two during New York’s 8-0 drubbing of the Dodgers as part of a three-hit night in which he finished a triple shy of the cycle.  Jefferies was then named NL Player of the Week for a six-game stretch between September 5 and September 10 in which he batted .440, collected 11 hits, clubbed 3 home runs, and posted a scorching 1.460 OPS.  The California native’s award-winning week included a September 9 game where he once again finished a single shy of hitting for the cycle.  After going 4 for 4 in a September 12, 3-2 victory over the second place Pirates, Jefferies brought his batting average up to a robust .462 since his call up.

Jefferies dominated NL pitching after being recalled to New York in late August 1988

During his first couple of weeks in New York, Jefferies split time between second and third base on defense.  When Backman returned from injury, the Mets settled on using Jefferies at the hot corner and moved the club’s regular third baseman Howard Johnson to short.  Since recalling Jefferies in late August, New York had generally hit him second in the batting order.  However, when the team’s number three hitter, Keith Hernandez missed a few games in mid-September, the club showed their confidence in Jefferies by temporarily moving him into the three-hole to replace Hernandez.  On September 16, Jefferies went 3 for 5 with his two out, 9th inning walk-off single leading the Mets to a 4-3 victory over the Montreal Expos.  Jefferies’ banner night snapped a three-game hitless stretch for the young phenom and effectively eliminated the third place Expos from contention as the Mets inched closer toward the NL East Division title.  Although Jefferies’ came back down to Earth in the season’s final weeks, he finished the year batting .321 with 6 home runs and 17 RBI in 118 plate appearances over 29 games.  New York clinched the Division title on September 22 and finished the campaign 15 games ahead of the second place Pirates with a 100-60 record.

The Mets were upset by the 94-67 Dodgers in a closely-contested, seven-game NLCS.  Jefferies batted .333 with a .438 OBP against Los Angeles, collecting 9 hits and drawing 4 walks.  The slugger hit safely in five of the seven games, including three multi-hit games.  Jefferies’ solid NLCS hitting was tempered by a fielding error at third base during the nightmarish 2nd inning of Game 7 in which New York allowed five runs.  In spite of that, Jefferies was the only Mets player with more than one hit against Dodgers Game 7 starter Orel Hershiser, who shutout New York to clinch the NL Pennant.

Following his late August call up, Jefferies’ assault on NL pitching was in-line with the game’s most dominant hitters.  While Jefferies’ 118 plate appearances were well shy of the 502 required to qualify for league leader categories, nevertheless, his .321 average was higher than the .313 mark of NL batting champion Tony Gwynn.  Moreover, Jefferies’ .596 slugging percentage, .961 OPS, and 178 OPS+ were each higher than the respective .545, .911, and 165 totals of teammate Darryl Strawberry, the NL leader for these three categories.  All of this came during a season which saw a significant drop in offense following the “Rabbit Ball”-fueled scoring outburst of 1987.  Indeed, the 3.88 average runs scored per game in the NL was not only down from 1987’s 4.52 but also the Senior Circuit’s lowest since 1968—a season which is commonly referred to as the “Year of the Pitcher.”

Jefferies placed sixth in the 1988 NL Rookie of the Year vote while Chris Sabo edged Mark Grace in a close election to win the award

Even though Jefferies had appeared in barely a month’s worth of games, the wunderkind slugger drew support in the NL Rookie of the Year election, picking up a second-place tally from one of the 24 voters.  Under the 5-3-1 voting format for first, second, and third, Jefferies’ 3 points tied him for sixth place with Chicago Cubs catcher Damon Berryhill.  Cincinnati Reds third baseman Chris Sabo edged Cubs first baseman Mark Grace, 79 points to 61, in a close election to take NL Rookie of the Year honors.  Sabo and Grace drew 11 and 7 first place votes, respectively.  The remaining 6 first place votes were split between Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Tim Belcher, Atlanta Braves infielder Ron Gant, and San Diego Padres second baseman Roberto Alomar who completed the top-five finishers.  Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ricky Jordan rounded out the results with 2 points from a pair of third place finishes.  Jefferies’ 109 at bats were the fewest ever by a position player who drew Rookie of the Year support.  Prior to Jefferies, the position player with the lowest number of at bats to garner support was Bob Hazle with 134 in 1957.  Since Jefferies’ 115 career at bats from his 1987 and 1988 call ups did not exceed the 130 at bat threshold and he had spent less than 45 days on the Mets roster prior to September 1, the young phenom’s rookie status stayed intact for the 1989 season.  Thus, Jefferies was eligible for and the prohibitive favorite to win the 1989 NL Rookie of the Year Award.

The emergence of Jefferies created a logjam in the Mets infield.  Jefferies’ profile in the March 1988 Sports Illustrated featured a quote from Mets Vice President of Baseball Operations Joe McIlvaine who stated, “When Gregg’s ready, we'll create a position for him.”  Faced with the likelihood of seeing reduced playing time, veteran second baseman Wally Backman expressed interest in being traded.  On December 7, the Mets honored Backman’s request and sent the keystoner to the Minnesota Twins, thus opening up second base for Jefferies.  Even after trading Backman it appeared New York might be willing to deal third baseman/shortstop Howard Johnson, provided the team could land a power-hitting slugger or frontline starting pitcher as part of a package for the infielder.  Johnson’s name appearing in trade rumors was not shocking since he was coming off a difficult 1988 campaign in which he struggled during both the regular season and the playoffs, resulting in his benching for Games 6 and 7 of the NLCS.  A trade involving “HoJo” could have potentially opened up both second and third base as options for Jefferies.  However, the trade never materialized and the Mets broke camp with Jefferies manning second base and Johnson back at the hot corner.  With just 24 minor and 10 major league games as a second baseman, Jefferies would be learning the position on the job.  Mets manager Davey Johnson, a former 3-time Gold Glove-winning second baseman, volunteered to teach Jefferies the nuances of the keystone as the skipper was content to keep “HoJo” at third and preferred the smooth glovework of Kevin Elster covering short.

Plugged into the number two spot in the batting order, Jefferies started 1989 off by picking up a pair of hits and scoring the Mets’ first run of the season en route to an 8-4 Opening Day victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.  However, Jefferies struggled mightily over his next 10 games, going 4 for 44.  By the end of April, Jefferies—now sporting an abysmal .176 average—was moved from the two-hole and batted later in the order, primarily out of the six spot.  Jefferies also began losing playing time to Tim Teufel.  The month of May was not any kinder to Jefferies as the youngster hit .195.  In fact, Jefferies sported a sub .200 batting average as late as June 9.  An additional cause for concern was the lack of power from Jefferies who had yet to hit a home run in 1989.  Jefferies had experienced a similar slump the year before at Triple-A Tidewater only this time, his struggles were taking place under the high-pressure environment of New York.  Jefferies’ difficulties at the plate began taking their toll on the beleaguered slugger.  Mets hitting instructor Bill Robinson commented on Jefferies’ frustration, “He’s eating himself up a little bit every day.  Every time he makes an out, he acts like it’s the end of the world.  He comes back to the dugout muttering to himself, then proceeds to step on his lower lip.  He’s trying too hard and not having enough fun out there.”

The young phenom experienced growing pains on both offense and defense during the 1989 season

Jefferies finally broke out of his slump with a series of multi-hit games during the first half of June which comfortably rose his batting average over the Mendoza Line.  Most notable was a three-hit June 15 game that concluded with Jefferies stroking a bottom of the 12th inning walk-off single to defeat the Cubs.  This was a particularly important win for the Mets since Chicago, along with New York, St. Louis, and Montreal, was one of four teams emerging as contenders for the NL East Division Title.  The following day on the road in Philadelphia, Jefferies drove in four runs, a pair of which came on his first home run of the season as the Mets beat the Phillies, 15-11.  Jefferies rode a six-game hitting streak into the All-Star break, however, his first half of the season had been well below expectations as his average through 73 games was still just .230 supported by a meager .284 OBP and .318 slugging percentage.  Jefferies did have 18 doubles but only the one home run while grounding into 12 double plays.  New York finished the first half in 3rd place with a 45-39 record.  The Mets sat right in the thick of a closely-packed four-team race for the NL East, a mere two and half games back of the Division-leading Expos, a single game behind the Cubs, and a half game in front of the Cardinals.

After a solid June which saw Jefferies bat .284, he slid back to .247 in July but hit 3 home runs and added 13 RBI.  Although Jefferies was able to avoid the prolonged slumps he experienced in April and May, he was not immune to occasionally being benched and platooned during the second half of the season.  With the club mired in a seven-game losing streak, Jefferies was sat in favor of Keith Miller at the beginning of August.  After seeing little action for the next two weeks, Jefferies was written into the lineup as the starting second baseman and leadoff hitter on August 17.  Jefferies responded by putting together an 11-game hitting streak during which he batted .396 and reclaimed his role as the team’s full-time second baseman.  However, the Mets only managed to go 4-7 during Jefferies’ hitting streak and had fallen to 4th place, three and a half games behind the Division-leading Cubs.

While Jefferies was flourishing as the club’s leadoff hitter and re-establishing himself on offense, his defense was still a work in progress.  Even with the tutoring of skipper Davey Johnson, the rookie keystoner was prone to make errors and had difficulty turning the double play.  Fortunately, most of those miscues had little effect on the outcome of the game.  However, one particularly costly error came on September 6 in the top of the 8th of a 2-2 tied game against the Cardinals when Jefferies’ miscue on a ground ball allowed Ozzie Smith to reach base.  Smith scored the go-ahead run later in the inning to hand New York the 3-2 loss.  Jefferies somewhat redeemed himself the following day when he hit a pair of longballs and drove in five runs during a 13-1 rout of St. Louis.  Those two games essentially summed up the final month of the season for Jefferies and the Mets.  The switch-hitter resembled the breakout star of the prior year by batting .300 with 8 home runs and 17 RBI.  Yet, Jefferies’ offensive outburst was offset by 5 errors including the costly September 6 miscue.  New York was unable to make up ground in the Division race, going 15-15 to close the campaign with an 87-75 record in 2nd place, 6 games behind the NL East Champion Cubs.  For the Mets, the 1989 season was particularly frustrating after coming off a 100-win 1988 in which they easily won the division.  New York’s disappointing 1989 also brought an end to a streak of five-straight seasons with at least 90 victories.

Jefferies' 1989 campaign ended with a bench-clearing brawl involving former teammate Roger McDowell

Unfortunately, Jefferies’ 1989 campaign did not end without controversy.  On September 25, in what was New York’s final homestand of the year, Phillies closer Roger McDowell retired Jefferies with a ground out to second base.  After McDowell broke Jefferies’ bat with one his pitches, the hurler made a point of screaming at the rookie.  Two nights later, during the last meeting between the two clubs—and by which point the Mets had been mathematically eliminated from the NL East race—McDowell was brought in to face Jefferies with two outs in the bottom of the 9th.  Once again, McDowell induced Jefferies to ground out to second.  After the two players exchanged words while Jefferies was running out the play, Jefferies raced toward McDowell and upended the pitcher who in turn landed a few blows to the slugger’s forehead as the two players went to the ground and the benches emptied.  Jefferies and McDowell had been teammates together prior to the pitcher’s trade from New York to Philadelphia on June 18.  It is likely McDowell’s behavior toward Jefferies stemmed from animosity the pitcher felt toward the rookie while the two shared the Mets locker room.  Phillies manager Nick Leyva said of the fight, “There were 30 of our guys rooting for Roger and 20 guys on their side rooting for Roger.”

Leyva’s quote highlighted a growing problem for Jefferies.  In addition to his slumps in the batter’s box and struggles on defense, he was also experiencing difficulties in the Mets clubhouse.  Jefferies had become unpopular with several of his teammates for a variety of reasons, many of which were out of his control:  The excessive attention and lavish praise bestowed upon him by the media and the Mets front office played a role in alienating him from some of his teammates.  Replacing popular veteran Wally Backman at second base had also created some resentment towards Jefferies.  Others took umbrage with what they perceived to be coddling from manager Davey Johnson.  However, some of Jefferies’ actions made the rookie a target of scorn:  The youngster’s displays of emotion after making outs were often viewed as immature pouting and selfish brooding.  Jefferies also raised eyebrows in the clubhouse when he requested that his custom-made black SSK bats be packed separately from his teammates.  Jefferies took special pride in his bats, rubbing them down with alcohol so he could see where he made contact with the ball.  Multiple teammates played pranks on Jefferies, a memorable one involved McDowell sawing the slugger’s bats in half and taping them back together so that when he went to use one, it would fall apart in his hands.

Jefferies finished his official rookie campaign with 12 home runs, 56 RBI, a .258 batting average, and .314 OBP.  The switch-hitter exhibited great contact skills by ranking 5th in the NL with 11.0 at bats per strikeout and also contributed on the basepaths with 21 stolen bases at a 77.8% success rate.  After a weak first half, Jefferies’ offense showed marked improvement with 11 longballs and a solid .287 average following the All-Star break.  In addition, Jefferies saw a 200-plus point difference between the paltry .602 OPS he put up prior to the Midsummer Classic and the .815 mark he posted in the second half.  Jefferies’ OPS for the season worked out to .706 which translated to an OPS+ of 106.  Also, after grounding into 12 double plays before the All-Star break, Jefferies was the victim of just 4 in the second half.  On defense, Jefferies finished the year with 14 errors, 12 of which came at second base—the third highest total among NL keystoners—while the remaining pair of miscues were in the limited action he saw at third base when Howard Johnson was either played at short or given the day off.  Overall, Jefferies’ put together a respectable rookie campaign.  However, due to the lofty expectations placed on Jefferies from his excellent stint as a late season call up, along with being a two-time recipient of Baseball America’s Minor League Player of the Year, his first full campaign was largely viewed as a letdown.

Jefferies finished third in the 1989 NL Rookie of the Year vote behind Jerome Walton and Dwight Smith

While Jefferies’ 1989 season may have been disappointing, the switch-hitter still garnered a fair amount of support in the NL Rookie of the Year vote.  Jefferies received votes from 16 of the 24 writers to finish 3rd in the results.  The California native accrued 18 points, three from a second-place vote and the remainder from 15 third place tallies.  Cubs center fielder Jerome Walton picked up 22 first place votes and a pair of runner-up finishes to give him 116 points and earn NL Rookie of the Year honors.  Walton batted leadoff for Chicago, put together a 30-game hitting streak, and finished the year with a .293 average.  Walton’s streak ran from July 21 to August 20, during which time the Cubs went 20-10, overtook Montreal for the NL East Division lead on August 7, and never relinquished it.  Finishing second in the vote with 68 points was Cubs slugger Dwight Smith, who patrolled Chicago’s outfield alongside Walton.  Smith collected the two remaining first place votes, 19 runner-up tallies, and a third place.  With an excellent .324 mark, Smith had a significant edge over his rookie peers in batting average.  However, since Smith was used in a platoon role and rarely faced left-handed pitching, he compiled far less plate appearances than Walton and Jefferies.  In addition, as a corner outfielder rotated between left and right field, Smith played less demanding defensive positions than Walton and Jefferies.  Smith’s 68-point total was essentially halfway between Walton and Jefferies, giving the election a clear winner, runner-up, and third place finisher.  Well behind Jefferies in fourth was Braves pitcher Derek Lilliquist who accumulated 6 points from a second-place finish and a trio of thirds.  Rounding out the results were Padres pitcher Andy Benes and Phillies third baseman Charlie Hayes who each drew 3 points, followed by Padres reliever Greg Harris with 2 points.

Going into the 2021 campaign, Jefferies stands as the only player to pick up Rookie of the Year support in multiple seasons.  However, the special circumstances of the abbreviated 60-game 2020 season set the stage for four players to draw Rookie of the Year votes and still retain their rookie status for 2021:  Atlanta Braves pitcher Ian Anderson, Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, Baltimore Orioles left fielder/first baseman Ryan Mountcastle, and Miami Marlins pitcher Sixto Sanchez.  Hayes, who coincidentally is the son of Charlie Hayes, collected 5 points from a second-place vote and a pair of third place tallies while Anderson, Mountcastle, and Sanchez grabbed a single point each from garnering a third-place finish.  It’s not hard to imagine Jefferies being joined by one or more of these four players since they will be among the favorites to win their respective league’s 2021 Rookie of the Year Award.

Going into the 2021 season, four players have a chance to match Jefferies' unique feat of drawing Rookie of the Year support in multiple seasons

During Jefferies’ 1988 call up, he appeared on the Mets roster for just over a month which represented roughly one-fifth of the regular season.  By contrast, Anderson, Mountcastle, and Sanchez each appeared on their respective team’s roster for more than half of the barely two-month long 2020 season while Hayes’ time on the Pirates roster was slightly greater than two-fifths.  Had these players appeared on their team’s roster for anything close to two-fifths during a normal 162-game season, they would have easily blown past the service time threshold and would not have their rookie status intact for 2021.

Although Jefferies was not the recipient of either the 1988 or 1989 Rookie of the Year Award, his initial campaigns represented the start to a solid, in some ways underrated career.  Going into his second full season, the 22 year-old Jefferies resolved to work on his maturity and improve his relationships with teammates.  Unfortunately for Jefferies, questions about his shaky defense and clubhouse issues continued to plague him during the 1990 and 1991 seasons.  In addition, Jefferies began experiencing more difficulties with the media and became a target for the unforgiving New York press.  Prior to the 1992 season, the Mets traded the slugger to the Kansas City Royals as part of a multi-player deal to acquire two-time Cy Young Award winner Bret Saberhagen.

Jefferies batted a career-high .342 in 1993 for the St. Louis Cardinals and hit for cycle in 1995 while playing for the Philadelphia Phillies

After leaving the Big Apple and the Mets franchise, Jefferies was able to repair his damaged reputation and develop positive relationships with his teammates and the press in the cities and on the clubs he played for.  Following a year in Kansas City, Jefferies was dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals who solved his defensive struggles by converting him into a first baseman.  The position change allowed Jefferies to focus on his hitting and he responded with back-to-back All-Star seasons, in 1993 and 1994, when he posted respective batting averages of .342 and .325.  At the conclusion of the strike-shortened 1994 campaign, Jefferies became a free agent for the first time.  Having played for three teams in the space of four years, Jefferies sought stability and requested a no-trade clause from St. Louis.  When the Cardinals turned down Jefferies’ request, he signed a four-year contract with the Phillies who included a no-trade clause in the deal.  Jefferies batted .300 for the third consecutive season during his first year in Philadelphia while also accomplishing a feat that had always eluded him when he hit for the cycle.  Jefferies had completed three-quarters of the cycle on ten previous occasions—including thrice during his 1988 call up—before he turned the trick on August 25, 1995 in a 17-4 win over the Dodgers.  Interestingly, Jefferies’ wife went into labor during the game and delivered the couple’s daughter two days later.  Injuries began to take their toll on Jefferies over the next few seasons.  Nevertheless, the California native managed to hit .300 for the fourth and final time in 1998 when he waived his no-trade clause to allow a late August trade to the Anaheim Angels.

Jefferies next signed a two-year contract with the Detroit Tigers.  After suffering through a horrid 1999, he was in the process of putting together a bounce back 2000 campaign when disaster struck.  On May 29, while facing Texas Rangers starter Kenny Rogers during the bottom of the 6th inning of a 3-2 loss, Jefferies tore his left hamstring running out a ground ball base hit.  The injury kept Jefferies off the field for the remainder of the season and in December of that year, the 33 year-old announced his retirement.  While he never reached the all-time great heights some had forecast for him as a young phenom, Jefferies put together a solid career that spanned parts of 14 seasons.  He retired as a veteran of 1,465 games in which he accumulated 1,593 hits and batted .289 with a .344 OBP along with 126 home runs, 663 RBI, and 196 stolen bases at a 75.7% success rate.  During his final season, Jefferies forged a strong bond with Tigers manager Phil Garner who valued the slugger’s opinions and often discussed strategy with him.  Jefferies called Garner the best manager he played under.  Garner thought so highly of Jefferies that he offered him the Tigers bench coach job for 2001.  However, Jefferies turned down Garner’s offer as he was still coming to terms with his playing career being over.  Although Jefferies’ hamstring injury brought a premature end to his career, by playing for Garner, in a way, the switch-hitter’s career came full circle as his final manager was the same Dodgers third baseman who he popped out to in his first major league plate appearance.

----by John Tuberty

Follow me on Twitter @BloggerTubbs

Sources:  Baseball Reference, Baseball Prospectus, Metsmerized Online May 2018 Gregg Jefferies interview, NY Post May 2020 article, St. Louis Dispatch June 2020

article, CBS Sports November 2021 article, Washington Post August 1995 article, SI Vault March 1988 article, SI Vault April 1992 article, SI Vault July 1994 article, Christian Science Monitor October 1988 article, Washington Post February 1988 article, Los Angeles Times May 1989 article, New York Times December 1988 article, MLB.com, New York Times November 1989 article, New York Times February 1989 article, CBS Sports, The Newburgh-Beacon Evening News September 7, 1989 article page 18 via Google News Archive, New York Times May 1991 article, Los Angeles Times October 1989 article, Daily Press June 1989 article, New York Times August 1988 article, Chicago Tribune November 1989 article, New York Times September 1989 article, South Florida Sun-Sentinel March 1990 article, New York Times April 1991 article, South Florida Sun-Sentinel May 1991 article, New York Times May 1991 article, New York Times April 1991 article, New York Times March 1990 article, Howard Johnson SABR bio, Wilmington Morning Star-News November 2, 1988 page 2B via Google News Archive, Morning Star-News November 9, 1989 page 2B via Google News Archive, Toledo Blade May 30, 2000 page 3C via Google News Archive, Bob Klapisch and John Harper-The Worst Team Money Could Buy (Bison Books)

Gregg Jefferies Cards:  1987 Coca-Cola Jackson Mets, 1989 CMC AAA All-Stars/Future Stars, 1988 Score, 1988 CMC AAA, 1988 ProCards Minor League, 1988 ProCards Triple A All-Star Game, 1988 Donruss, 1988 Fleer, 1989 Fleer, 1990 Bowman, 1991 Topps Stadium Club, 1990 Topps, 2013 Topps Archive, 1993 Fleer Ultra, 1995 Fleer Update, 2001 Topps, 1988 Star Pink

Other Player’s Cards:  Chris Sabo 1989 Topps, Mark Grace 1989 Topps, Roger McDowell 1990 Topps, Jerome Walton 1990 Topps, Dwight Smith 1990 Topps, Ian Anderson 2020 Bowman, Ke’Bryan Hayes 2020 Bowman 1st Edition, Ryan Mountcastle 2020 Bowman, Sixto Sanchez 2020 Bowman Prospects, Phil Garner 1988 Score, Phil Garner 2001 Topps

Other Articles by Tubbs Baseball Blog:

Taking a Deeper Look into Tim Hudson’s Excellent .625 Win-Loss Percentage and Comparing the Hurler to Recent Hall of Fame Inductees and Other Prominent Pitchers from the Era He Played In

Keith Hernandez, Whitey Herzog, and the Controversial Trade That Revived The New York Mets

How Dwight Evans Overcame a Mid-Career Crisis to Evolve into a Hall of Fame-Caliber Player

Stat links to players mentioned: Gregg Jefferies, Keith Hernandez, Darryl Strawberry, Wally Backman, Howard Johnson, Phil Garner, Ian Anderson, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Ryan Mountcastle, Sixto Sanchez, Tony Gwynn, Orel Hershiser, Mickey Mantle, Pete Rose, Ozzie Smith, Davey Johnson, Brian Holton, Bruce Ruffin, Keith Miller, Eric Show, Damon Berryhill, Chris Sabo, Mark Grace, Tim Belcher, Ron Gant, Roberto Alomar, Ricky Jordan, Bob Hazle, Kevin Elster, Tim Teufel, Bill Robinson, Roger McDowell, Nick Leyva, Jerome Walton, Dwight Smith, Derek Lilliquist, Andy Benes, Charlie Hayes, Bret Saberhagen, Kenny Rogers

 

David Ostrowsky’s Pro Sports in 1993 Gives Readers an In-Depth Look at a Memorable Year in Football, Basketball, Hockey and Baseball

 

The Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bulls, Montreal Canadiens, and Toronto Blue Jays.  These four teams were once dominant franchises in their respective sport.  However, over the past couple of decades, these franchises have struggled to recapture their past championship glory.  In his book, Pro Sports in 1993:  A Signature Season in Football, Basketball, Hockey and Baseball, David Ostrowsky takes the reader back to a memorable year in which this quartet of teams stood tall as champions of the four major sports.

Ostrowsky splits his book into seven chapters, each of which examines a major event that shaped the 1993 sports world.  Ostrowsky devotes a chapter to each of the championship teams from the four major sports.  In addition, Ostrowsky also includes three additional chapters which cover Joe Montana’s first season with the Kansas City Chiefs following the veteran quarterback’s controversial trade from the San Francisco 49ers, the opening of the Baltimore Orioles home ballpark Camden Yards which played host to the 1993 MLB All-Star Game, and the Buffalo Bills incredible comeback win against the Houston Oilers in AFC Wild Card Playoff Game.  Each of the seven chapters are thoroughly researched and well written.  Ostrowsky secured first-hand interviews with a wealth of players, coaches, and team personnel.  Ostrowsky does an excellent job of mixing his writing with quotes he gathered from these first-hand interviews.

As a baseball fan, I was drawn to the chapters about Camden Yards hosting the MLB All-Star Game and the Toronto Blue Jays repeating as World Series champions.  Ostrowsky gives details on the background of the building of Camden Yards, takes the reader through the April 1992 opening of the ballpark, the pregame festivities of the 1993 All-Star Week, and the All-Star Game itself.  I learned a lot about Camden Yards in this chapter.  For example, I was not aware that a young Orioles intern named Theo Epstein was instrumental in putting together a five-day celebration during the All-Star Week to honor former Negro League players.  Also, I was surprised to find out that there was a fair amount of push back for the retro-style ballpark design which Camden Yards made famous.  Ostrowsky brings the All-Star Game to life with quotes from both American and National League players including Jay Bell, Devon White, John Burkett, and Andy Benes.  Ostrowsky also gives insights into the clash between Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston who helmed the AL team and Orioles hurler Mike Mussina who was denied the chance to pitch in front of the hometown fans when Gaston opted to have Blue Jays reliever Duane Ward toss the final inning of the Midsummer Classic.

 

Pro Sports in 1993 includes several quotes about players from the World Series-winning Toronto Blue Jays as well as the teams they faced in the playoffs

The chapter about the Blue Jays features an assortment of quotes centering on Toronto’s top players including future Hall of Famers Roberto Alomar and Paul Molitor as well memorable sluggers Joe Carter and John Olerud.  This chapter also highlights the differences between Toronto’s 1992 World Series-winning team and the 1993 club along with the challenges they faced trying to repeat as World Champions.  The acquisition of Molitor—the eventual 1993 World Series MVP—and the emergence of Olerud— the 1993 AL batting champ—are identified as key factors in Toronto repeating as World Champions.  Ostrowsky doesn’t just focus on the Blue Jays, he also takes a look at the Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Phillies, the two teams Toronto defeated in the playoffs on their way to securing a second-straight World Championship.  The speed and power of the White Sox is spotlighted with quotes about future Hall of Famers Tim Raines and Frank Thomas while characters like John Kruk, Darren Daulton, and Lenny Dykstra are remembered from the collection of misfits who made up the unlikely NL Pennant-winning Phillies.  Ostrowsky interviews some notable players for this chapter including 7-time Gold Glove winner Devon White and 1993 AL Cy Young Award winner Jack McDowell.  However, the player with the most intriguing quotes is veteran Blue Jays infielder Alfredo Griffin.  As a light-hitting middle infielder who was primarily on Toronto’s postseason roster for his glovework, Griffin describes entering Game 6 as a late-inning defensive replacement and finding himself with the unique perspective of being the on-deck hitter when Joe Carter took Mitch Williams deep for his Series-ending walk-off home run.

 

The 1993 Stanley Cup Finals featured a match up between future Hall of Famers Patrick Roy and Wayne Gretzky with a young John LeClair emerging as an unlikely hero

I was also drawn to the chapter about the 1993 Stanley Cup-winning Montreal Canadiens.  I have always drawn a parallel between the dominance of the 24-time Stanley Cup champion Canadiens and the New York Yankees, winners of 27 World Series Titles.  It’s hard to believe that with Montreal’s long history of success, 1993 represents their most recent championship to date and perhaps even more shocking is that no Canadian-based franchise has raised the Cup since.  As a one-off championship team, the 1993 Canadiens are rarely written about and not romanticized in the same way as the club’s dynasties from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.  Thus, it is nice to see Ostrowsky focus on the 1993 team’s postseason triumph.  This chapter largely centers on the two iconic players who faced off in the Finals, Montreal’s Patrick Roy and Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings.  Ostrowsky gives a background on each of these superstar player’s struggles prior to the playoffs—Roy’s subpar regular season before railing off an amazing 10 straight overtime playoff wins and Gretzky’s return from a career-threatening injury to help lead the Kings to their first and ultimately his last Cup Final.  In addition to the in-depth look at Roy and Gretzky, this chapter also focuses on the controversial penalty involving Kings defenseman Marty McSorley which played a key role in shifting the momentum of the Finals to Montreal as well as the clutch play of young Canadiens left winger John LeClair.  Ostrowsky also secured interviews for this chapter from some well-known Canadiens and Kings players including Kirk Muller, Brian Bellows, Tony Granato, and Jimmy Carson.

Reading about Joe Montana’s move to the Chiefs seemed particularly relevant with Tom Brady recently leaving the New England Patriots for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  Also, with the Bills franchise experiencing a revival, it is a fitting time to take a look back at the Buffalo team that dominated the AFC in the early Nineties.  I actually enjoyed the chapter about Buffalo’s miraculous come-from-behind victory over the Oilers most since it featured outstanding quotes from Bills players Don Beebe, Steve Christie, and Hall of Famer Andre Reed.

Some of the book's best quotes are drawn from David Ostrowsky's first-hand interviews with Bill Cartwright, Don Beebe, and Hall of Famer Andre Reed

I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to read about Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls winning their third straight championship or the Dallas Cowboys capturing their second of what would be three Super Bowls in a four-year span since the success of these dynasties has been well-documented.  Nevertheless, I am happy I did as I found both of these chapters interesting.  A couple of the highlights from these chapters include the many facets of Jordan’s complicated personality being explored by His Airness’ former teammates Bill Cartwright and Scott Williams as well as Super Bowl XXVIII hero James Washington’s account of his experiences in helping the Cowboys overcome the Bills.

While I enjoyed reading quotes from the Bills players about their stunning comeback victory in the AFC Wild Card Game, I can’t say I strongly favored one chapter above all of the others which speaks to the overall strength of the book.  The book also gave each franchise’s 1993 season more of an identity for me—as opposed to just remembering these teams as “the second of the back-to-back Blue Jays World Series winners” or “part of the Bulls or Cowboys dynasties of the 1990s.”  I recommend this book to any sports fan because with Ostrowsky’s first-hand interviews you are sure to learn something new about the memorable players and teams that are profiled and gain a new appreciation for pro sports in 1993.

----by John Tuberty

Link to Pro Sports in 1993 on Amazon

Follow me on Twitter @BloggerTubbs

Cards:  Paul Molitor, John Olerud, Roberto Alomar 1994 Topps Stadium Club, Patrick Roy 1990-91 Score, John LeClair 1992-93 Topps Stadium Club, Wayne Gretzky 1990-91 Score, Bill Cartwright 1992-93 Topps, Don Beebe 1993 Bowman, Andre Reed 1993 Bowman

Other Articles by Tubbs Baseball Blog:

Taking a Deeper Look into Tim Hudson’s Excellent .625 Win-Loss Percentage and Comparing the Hurler to Recent Hall of Fame Inductees and Other Prominent Pitchers from the Era He Played In

How Dwight Evans Overcame a Mid-Career Crisis to Evolve into a Hall of Fame-Caliber Player

My Father’s Memories of Working with Carl Yastrzemski at Kahn’s-Hillshire Farm in the Early Eighties 

Stat links to players mentioned:  Paul Molitor, Roberto Alomar, Joe Carter, John Olerud, Duane Ward, Devon White, Alfredo Griffin, Frank Thomas, Tim Raines, Jack McDowell, Mitch Williams, John Kruk, Darren Daulton, Lenny Dykstra, Mike Mussina, Andy Benes, John Burkett, Jay Bell, Cito Gaston, Wayne Gretzky, Patrick Roy, John LeClair, Marty McSorley, Brian Bellows, Kirk Muller, Tony Granato, Jimmy Carson, Joe Montana, Tom Brady, Don Beebe, Steve Christie, Andre Reed, Michael Jordan, Bill Cartwright, James Washington, Scott Williams

Taking a Deeper Look into Tim Hudson’s Excellent .625 Win-Loss Percentage and Comparing the Hurler to Recent Hall of Fame Inductees and Other Prominent Pitchers from the Era He Played In

The 2021 BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot will mark the first time in nearly a decade that no first-time eligible candidates are expected to draw close to the necessary 75% of the vote required for election.  Nevertheless, the upcoming ballot features a few newly-eligible candidates with intriguing Hall of Fame cases who could build towards eventual election.

Arguably, the first-time candidate with the strongest Hall of Fame case is right-handed pitcher Tim Hudson.  During a solid career which spanned from 1999 to 2015, Hudson pitched for three teams:  the Oakland Athletics, Atlanta Braves, and San Francisco Giants.  Hudson was noted for his mastery of the sinkerball which he used to frustrate opposing hitters by generating weak contact and inducing ground balls.  Hudson retired with a career win-loss record of 222-133 and a 3.49 ERA.  When Hudson’s career ERA is ballpark and league adjusted, his 3.49 mark translates into a more illustrious 120 ERA+.  In addition, Hudson accumulated 57.9 career WAR during his career.  Yet, Hudson’s most impressive career statistic is his excellent .625 win-loss percentage, which is the equivalent of a team posting a 101-61 record over the course of a full season.  Historically, a pitcher with the combination of Hudson’s 222 victories and .625 win-loss percentage has been voted into the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA or through one of the incarnations of the Era Committee.  However, wins have become devalued by some in the baseball community and as a result Hudson may not receive the support he would have from previous generations of voters.  With this in mind, I decided to take a deeper look into the validity of Hudson’s win-loss percentage by comparing the righty to seven prominent pitchers in a variety of categories that affect wins and losses.  Rather than just rely on the popular traditional and sabermetric methods, I chose to take a different approach by using some alternative advanced metrics and statistics to analyze the pitchers.

The seven hurlers I am comparing Hudson to include:

•the three starting pitchers most recently voted into the Hall of Fame:  Roy Halladay, Mike Mussina, and Jack Morris; 

•the highest returning holdover candidate on the BBWAA ballot:  Curt Schilling;

•two of Hudson’s contemporaries whom are also candidates on the upcoming ballot:  Andy Pettitte and Mark Buehrle;

•as well as another contemporary who is not yet eligible but has a strong chance at being elected to Cooperstown:  CC Sabathia.

The Rare Combination of Hudson’s 222 Wins and .625 Win-Loss Percentage

Before delving into the comparisons, I wanted to see how rare it is for a pitcher to retire with Hudson’s impressive combination of career victories and win-loss percentage.  In fact, only 16 pitchers have completed their careers with more victories than Hudson’s 222 while also posting a higher win-loss percentage than the righty’s .625 mark.  To date, 14 of those 16 pitchers are in the Hall of Fame while the two hurlers who have yet to be elected, Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte, are still on the BBWAA ballot.  Of course, Clemens’ and Pettitte’s Hall of Fame candidacies have each been adversely affected by their ties to PEDs.  Had it not been for the PED allegations, Clemens would have been an easy first ballot or even unanimous Hall of Fame selection while Pettitte would have certainly drawn a much higher vote total than the respective 9.9% and 11.3% he collected in his first two years on the ballot.

However, Hudson’s 222 victories and .625 win-loss percentage represent the minimum of the standard.  Nevertheless, if the standard is changed to pitchers with 200 victories and a .600 win-loss percentage, Hudson still belongs to a very exclusive club as he is one of just 37 hurlers to retire with this impressive statistical combination.  Moreover, 28 of those 37 pitchers are in the Hall of Fame.  Aside from Hudson, the remaining hurlers sitting outside of Cooperstown who retired with the 200 victory/.600 win-loss percentage combination includes the aforementioned Clemens and Pettitte and also adds the yet-to-be eligible Sabathia along with David Wells, early 20th century right-hander Carl Mays, and a trio of 19th century pitchers—Charlie Buffinton, Bob Caruthers, and Jack Stivetts.  Other than Sabathia, Hudson’s career is a healthy step above these additional hurlers as Mays and Stivetts only just clear the 200-victory threshold while Wells, Buffinton, and Stivetts barely meet the .600 win-loss percentage standard.  Mays has appeared on the Veterans Committee ballot in the past but has never come close to election.  His Hall of Fame case has been overshadowed by throwing the errant pitch that killed Ray Chapman and suspicion that he purposely lost World Series games during the 1921 and 1922 Fall Classics.  The trio of 19th century hurlers have never been serious Hall of Fame candidates as each had careers that were barely a decade long, played during an era when two or three-man pitching rotations were the norm and the disparity between the best and worst teams was more pronounced.  Wells is the only pitcher of recent times to retire with the 200 victory/.600 win-loss percentage combination and fall off the BBWAA ballot.  However, Wells’ Hall of Fame case was likely doomed by his 4.13 career ERA which would be, by far, the highest in Cooperstown.

 

Career Totals as a Starting Pitcher

Since the majority of the stats I am using reflect the hurlers’ performances in games in which they were the starting pitcher, their career record, win-loss percentage, and ERA shown below slightly differ from their overall career totals.

The pitchers I consider most fitting to compare Hudson with are Buehrle, Halladay, Pettitte, and Sabathia because their career timelines most overlap with Hudson’s.  Keep in mind, Hudson is being judged against hurlers who have promising Hall of Fame cases or are already enshrined in Cooperstown.  It is certainly possible that each of these pitchers will one day find their way into the Hall of Fame either through the BBWAA vote or on a later Era Committee ballot.  Thus, being at or near the mean of these pitchers in these categories is impressive.

Percentage of Games Started Won and Lost

During his career, Hudson regularly won while rarely losing.  In fact, Hudson finished with a sub-.500 win-loss percentage in just two of his 17 major league seasons.  Moreover, Hudson had just four double-digit loss campaigns, including two where he lost exactly ten games.  By contrast, Hudson had 13 seasons with double-digits in wins.  Hudson’s career-high total of defeats was just 13—a total he met or exceeded in victories ten times during his career. 

The tables above show Hudson is slightly below the mean among the eight hurlers in percentage of games started where he was credited as the winning pitcher.  However, Hudson really shines in the low percentage of games started where he was tagged as the losing pitcher.  Hudson took the loss in just 27.77% of his starts, trailing only Halladay who easily leads the octet of hurlers in both categories—underscoring why “Doc” is the only first-ballot Hall of Famer of the group.  These two categories also illustrate how Hudson won with more regularity than contemporaries Buehrle and Sabathia and lost with less frequency than Pettitte, Buehrle, and Sabathia.

Quality Start Percentage and Average Game Score (Version 2.0)

Quality start and game score are two useful metrics to evaluate a starting pitcher’s performance.

A pitcher is given credit for a quality start when they pitch six or more innings while giving up three or fewer earned runs.  When a starting pitcher is removed from the game, you’ll often hear a commentator remark, “he gave his team a chance to win” or “he kept his team in the game.”  If a hurler has a quality start, they’ve essential pitched well enough to earn the win or have, at the very least, kept the game close by limiting the opposing team’s scoring.

Game score is a metric which gauges a starting pitcher’s performance by converting it into a number figure based on the quantity and quality of the outing.  Game score was originally devised by Bill James, however, I prefer Tom Tango’s refined version of the metric because it uses a slightly different formula which penalizes pitchers for giving up home runs, something James’ version does not do.

 

At 63.05%, Hudson is comfortably above the mean in percentage of quality starts and a good distance ahead of Pettitte, Sabathia, and Morris.  For average game score, Hudson’s 56.25% is an eyelash below the 56.34% mean.  The three pitchers Hudson trails in average game score are a pair of Hall of Fame hurlers, Halladay and Mussina, along with Schilling—who if it hadn't been for a crowded ballot and his off-the-field controversies, would have been voted into Cooperstown several years ago.

Cheap Wins and Tough Losses

A cheap win is when a starting pitcher earns the victory in a non-quality start by pitching fewer than 6 innings or allowing more than 3 earned runs.

With just 28 of his 222 career triumphs being classified as cheap wins, Hudson rarely was the recipient of a gifted victory despite making a non-quality start.  Hudson’s 12.61% mark ranks a strong third among the eight hurlers and is easily better the 15.70% mean.

Essentially the opposite of a cheap win, the pitcher is credited with a tough loss when they are the losing pitcher of record in a quality start.

This is the first category in which Hudson looks poor in comparison to the featured hurlers.  With 35 of his 133 career defeats coming in quality starts, Hudson is about 5 tough losses below the mean.  Nevertheless, Hudson’s solid average game score mark somewhat nullifies his lower number of tough losses.  Interestingly, Hudson’s highest percentage of tough losses came in 2014 when the righty posted a career-worst 9-13 record for the San Francisco Giants despite making quality starts in seven of those defeats.  Hudson’s losing record was largely the byproduct of being a victim of particularly poor run support as San Francisco’s offense scored zero or one run in each of the seven games in which the sinkerball-specialist made a quality start but was tagged with the loss.  Yet, it all worked out for Hudson and the Giants as the season ended with the veteran lifting the World Championship trophy over his head after the club beat the Kansas City Royals to win the 2014 Fall Classic.

 

Wins Lost and Losses Saved

The wins lost table shows how often the eight pitchers were in the position to be credited for the victory at the time they faced their final batter, only to be denied the win due to their bullpen blowing the lead.

Hudson has the dubious honor of leading the octet of hurlers in wins lost.  Over the course of his career, Hudson lost a staggering 50 potential wins due to his bullpen blowing leads.  In fact, the lead Hudson holds over the other pitchers is so significant that the difference between the sinkerballer’s 10.44% wins lost mark and the 8.46% of the second-highest placing hurler, Roy Halladay, is greater than the gap from Halladay to the 6.61% total of the next-to-last ranked CC Sabathia.

Hudson spent the early part of his career with the Oakland Athletics.  Along with Mark Mulder and Barry Zito, Hudson was part of an impressive trio of young starters known as the Big Three.  Before being split up by Hudson’s and Mulder’s respective trades to the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals following the 2004 season, the Big Three helped lead the A’s to three AL West Division Titles and one AL Wildcard.  Unfortunately for Hudson, Oakland’s bullpen had a bad habit of costing him wins.  Hudson was particularly victimized between 2002 and 2004 when the A’s relief corps cost the sinkerballer 18 potential wins.  Taking a deeper look into the game logs, only one of those 18 probable victories were lost as a result of Hudson leaving a runner on base.  What’s more, Hudson’s leads were often blown by the A’s closers during those years as Billy Koch squandered 3 of the 8 potential victories the bullpen cost Hudson in 2002 while Keith Foulke accounted for all 4 of Hudson’s probable wins that were lost in 2003.  However, because Oakland’s potent offense was able to retake the lead when they were the pitcher of record, Koch was credited with the win for all three of the potential victories he cost Hudson while Foulke picked up the “W” for two of the four probable victories he cost Hudson.  Despite blowing Hudson’s potential wins, Koch and Foulke were each named the respective AL Rolaid Relievers of the Year in 2002 and 2003.  While Oakland’s bullpen struggled to hold Hudson’s leads, it was certainly not due to the righty coming out of games too quickly as he regularly pitched deep into ballgames, averaging 7 innings per start between 2002 and 2004.  Moreover, Hudson ranked third among AL hurlers for innings pitched in both 2002 and 2003.

 

The antithesis of wins lost, losses saved accounts for the number of times the eight hurlers were in position for the loss but their team came back to tie the game or take the lead, thus saving them from being the losing pitcher of record.

Hudson ranks fifth with an 8.56% losses saved mark that is a tick better than the mean.  Hudson is a good distance in front of sixth place Schilling and is well ahead of his contemporaries, Buehrle and Sabathia, who bring up the rear.  Among the eight pitchers, Hudson along with Hall of Famers Halladay and Mussina are the only ones with more wins lost than losses saved.

“Adjusted” Win-Loss Percentage

Cheap wins and tough losses essentially have their respective opposites in wins lost and losses saved.  As the previous tables illustrate, some hurlers excel amongst their fellow pitchers in one category while struggling by comparison in another.  However, by deducting cheap wins and tough losses from the pitcher’s career totals while adding wins lost and losses saved to their ledger, an “adjusted” career win-loss percentage is created which gives an idea of the eight hurlers’ overall performance in those four categories.  The table below shows each pitcher’s “adjusted” starting pitcher career win-loss record and the increase or decrease from their “adjusted” to their actual starting pitcher win-loss percentage.

 

Hudson once again finds himself among Hall of Famers as his .0117 increase from his actual to “adjusted” win-loss percentage ranks second, in between Halladay and Mussina.  Hudson and Halladay are the only two hurlers who have more tough losses than cheap wins as well as a greater number of wins lost than losses saved.  Hudson’s contemporaries, Pettitte and Sabathia, stand out in a different way as they are the only two pitchers to see a decrease from their actual to “adjusted” win-loss percentage.  In fact, Pettitte’s and Sabathia’s decreases are so significant that they bring the mean all the way down to .0040 with each of the other six hurlers comfortably above it.

Run Support

Aside from National League pitchers occasionally helping their own cause, the level of run support a hurler receives from their offense is out of their control.  Nevertheless, run support can have a major effect on a pitcher’s win-loss record.  Run support is judged in two different ways: run support per game which measures runs scored for the entire game per 27 outs and run support per innings which accounts for runs scored per 27 outs while the starting pitcher was in the game.  Below are each of the hurler’s career run support per game and per innings versus the MLB average which is in parentheses.  These tables are followed by the combined differences between each pitcher’s run support per game and per inning versus the MLB average during their career.

Hudson ranks second behind Schilling on all three tables.  However, calculating a true ranking based on run support is difficult since a pitcher’s run support is affected by a variety of factors that are unique to each hurler including the pitcher’s home ballpark, the division their team played in, and the era during which their career took place.  For example, the hurler with, by far, the lowest run support is Schilling who spent eight-and-a-half years of his career playing for the offensively-challenged Philadelphia Phillies who finished at or near the bottom of the NL in runs scored during the bulk of his time with the club.  Conversely, the pitchers with highest run support are Pettitte and Mussina who respectively spent the majority and entirety of their career’s playing in the high-offense AL East during what is often referred to as the Steroid Era.  Nevertheless, aside from Schilling, it does not appear Hudson benefited from higher run support in comparison to the featured hurlers.

Individual Starting Pitcher Win-Loss Percentage vs. Team Win-Loss Percentage

During his career, Hudson generally pitched for competitive teams.  In fact, just two seasons of Hudson’s 17-year career were spent with a team that finished the campaign with a sub-.500 record.  Thus, a Hall of Fame voter might assume the hurler’s excellent .625 win-loss percentage is a byproduct of playing the majority of his career with competitive teams.  Nevertheless, it is also true that the best pitchers will generally play the bulk of their careers with winning teams, in part, because their services will be sought by the most competitive franchises.  Indeed, the Braves made a deal with the A’s to acquire Hudson as the right-hander was approaching free agency and quickly signed him to a lucrative contract extension to keep him from testing the open market.  And, towards the end of Hudson’s career, the Giants signed the hurler to add veteran depth to their rotation as the club embarked on its third Championship run in five seasons.  While Hudson’s services were in demand by contending teams, it is undoubtedly true his win-loss record was enhanced by playing for competitive franchises.  However, most of the featured hurlers followed the same pattern of spending a significant portion of their careers with winning ballclubs.  The table below illustrates which pitchers benefited most from playing for competitive franchises by showing the difference between each’s individual win-loss percentage as a starting pitcher versus the accumulated win-loss percentage for the teams they played for during their career.

The teams Hudson played for during his career put together an overall win-loss percentage of .553 which is roughly the equivalent of a club posting a 90-72 regular season record while the righty’s .625 individual career win-loss percentage translates to a 101-61 record over the course of a full season.  The .072 difference between Hudson’s individual win-loss percentage versus the .553 mark of the teams he played for ranks the sinkerball-specialist fourth among the eight hurlers, just shy of the .077 mean.  Hudson’s win-loss percentage was aided by playing for competitive franchises but it is also evident that he outperformed his teams in comparison to his contemporaries Sabathia, Buehrle, and Pettitte as his .072 mark is comfortably ahead of each of these hurlers.

Average Finish in the Ranked Categories

To give an overall picture of how Hudson stacks up among the eight pitchers here is the average finish of the featured hurlers based on their classification in the ranked categories.  I chose to omit the three run support tables from the rankings because there are too many variables and not a clear enough picture to give an accurate ranking.  I also excluded “adjusted” win-loss percentage from the rankings since it is a composite of cheap wins, tough losses, wins lost, and losses saved.

Hudson’s 3.89 average finish ranks the sinkerballer fourth among the eight pitchers.  Hudson’s combined rankings from the nine categories add up to 35 points, putting him just three points behind overly-qualified Hall of Fame candidate Schilling and two points away from 2019 Cooperstown inductee Mussina.  Hudson is above the mean in five of the nine ranked categories.  What’s more, the righty sits well above the mean in four of those categories:  lowest percentage of games started lost, average quality start percentage, lowest percentage of cheap wins, and highest percentage of wins lost.  By contrast, Hudson is well below the mean in only one metric:  highest percentage of tough losses.

 

As for the seven other featured hurlers, not surprisingly Halladay leads his fellow pitchers by a sizable gap.  In fact, Halladay ranks first or second in seven of the nine categories and his 17 points from the combined rankings translates to an average finish of 1.89.  With such a wide margin separating Halladay from the three-way battle for second place between Schilling, Mussina, and Hudson, it is clear that among the nine ranked categories the first-ballot Hall of Famer is truly in a class by himself.  A ways back from the Schilling-Mussina-Hudson triumvirate, Buehrle and Pettitte are tied for fifth place with their equivalent 48 points giving them each a 5.33 average finish.  Further back is Morris with 55 points and a 6.11 average finish while Sabathia is dead last with 56 points and a 6.22 average.

Morris’ seventh place rank is not surprising since his 3.90 ERA is the highest among Hall of Fame pitchers.  Nevertheless, Morris’ Hall of Fame case was greatly strengthened by his stellar World Series performances during the 1984 and 1991 Fall Classics, each of which played a role in his election to Cooperstown.  However, Sabathia’s last place finish is somewhat unexpected.  During the final season of his career, Sabathia joined the prestigious 3,000-strikeout club while also reaching the secondary milestone of 250 wins.  Reaching these dual milestones will undoubtedly help Sabathia draw support when he becomes eligible to appear on the BBWAA ballot in four years.  That being said, Sabathia’s low ranking is due, in part, to his pitching several seasons past his prime.  With 3577.1 innings pitched, Sabathia ranks second among the eight hurlers, behind only Morris’ 3824 frames.  This longevity enabled Sabathia to reach the 250-win/3000-strikeout milestones but the quantity he added also came at the expense of quality as, over the final seven seasons of his career, the hurler often struggled to pitch at a league average level, going 60-59 with a 4.33 ERA while posting a pedestrian ERA+ of 97.  Moreover, during Sabathia’s final seven campaigns, the veteran was the beneficiary of 16 cheap wins and saved from a staggering 31 potential losses compared to being the victim of 14 tough losses with just 5 potential wins lost.

While Hudson’s 3.89 average finish and fourth place ranking puts him in the neighborhood of Schilling and Mussina, many of the popular sabermetric stats such as WAR and JAWS judge the sinkerball-specialist’s career value as being closer to his contemporaries, Buehrle, Pettitte, and Sabathia.  Nevertheless, with Hudson’s strong overall showing in the nine categories, the righty sets himself apart from Buehrle and Pettitte, whom he is slated to share the upcoming ballot with.  Hudson also distinguishes himself from Sabathia, who will be eligible for the 2025 vote.  In addition, Hudson’s solid ranking and the edge he holds over three of his contemporaries underscores the validity of his 222 victories and .625 win-loss percentage.  Wins may be devalued by some in the baseball community, however, the rarely seen combination of Hudson’s victory total and win-loss percentage are key elements of a Hall of Fame-caliber career that should one day earn the hurler a bronze plaque in Cooperstown.

----by John Tuberty 

Follow me on Twitter @BloggerTubbs

Sources:  Baseball Reference, Baseball Reference Stathead, Fangraphs, MLB, Cooperstown Cred Andy Pettitte article, Cooperstown Cred CC Sabathia article

Cards:  Tim Hudson 2002 SP Authentic, Mark Buehrle 2002 Upper Deck Ballpark Idols, CC Sabathia 2010 Topps, Roy Halladay 2006 Fleer Ultra, Mike Mussina 1996 Topps, Andy Pettitte 1996 Fleer, Curt Schilling 2000 Upper Deck Pros & Prospects, Jack Morris 1984 Fleer, Tim Hudson 2007 Upper Deck, Tim Hudson 2014 Bowman Chrome, Tim Hudson 2002 Topps Reserve, Tim Hudson 2006 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Update, Curt Schilling 2004 Fleer Ultra, Mike Mussina 2003 Upper Deck First Pitch

 

Other Articles by Tubbs Baseball Blog:

My Three Favorite Baseball Cards and Thoughts on the Hall of Fame Case of Mainstay Era Committee Ballot Candidate Tommy John

How Dwight Evans Overcame a Mid-Career Crisis to Evolve into a Hall of Fame-Caliber Player

My Favorite Baseball Cards of Jimmy Key During His Nine Seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays

 

Stat links to players mentioned: Tim Hudson, Roy Halladay, Mike Mussina, Jack Morris, Curt Schilling, Andy Pettitte, Mark Buehrle, CC Sabathia, Roger Clemens, David Wells, Mark Mulder, Barry Zito, Billy Koch, Keith Foulke, Carl Mays, Charlie Buffinton, Bob Caruthers, Jack Stivetts, Ray Chapman