As you might have already guessed, this is the second installment in the series. Here goes:

1957 Pirates

The Pirates contended for a while in 1956 (they were tied for first place as late as June 17) and finished second in 1958. In between, they completely laid an egg under Bobby Bragan. I don't know what Bragan did to let this team get away from him, but it should not have been in last place.

The '57 Pirates are, in a way, a parallel to the 1986 Twins, who had Hrbek, Puckett, Gaetti and Brunansky, all of them young, but didn't win because Ray Miller was as good at managing as Barry Bonds is at avoiding controversy. In this case, the Pirates had the pitching, but Bragan didn't know what to do with it.

The Pirates had a top three starting rotation of Bob Friend, Vern Law and Bob Purkey. Combined, they would have 11 seasons of at least 17 wins. The fourth starter was Ron Kline. Take those four, and you get 602 career wins. They were all fairly young -- not illegal Chinese female gymnast young, but none were over 27.

The Pirates wouldn't get the best out of Purkey, as they gave up on him because he fell apart over the last few months of 1957. They traded him for Don Gross, who could brag that he is Todd Benzinger's uncle if Todd Benzinger were famous. Gross went 6-8 in 113 innings for the Pirates, while Purkey won 113 games after the trade.

That's just the rotation. Roy Face, Dick Hall and Luis Arroyo were in the bullpen. While Arroyo just had the one great year (and was effective in limited duty in 1960), Face and Hall were good forever. Take those two guys and the four starters, and they all pitched until at least 1966.

The Pirates won the World Series in 1960 and 93 games in 1962, but they were never really a great team, and Law said his career was messed up after the 1960 pennant celebration when a drunk rookie tried to yank his shoe off and pulled the ligaments in his ankle instead. But when you look at the best pitching staffs for a last-place team, you have to look at the '57 Pirates.

1971 Padres

When you think of pitching that was too good to be in last place, you also have to consider this team. The Padres had a team ERA of 3.22, which, not coincidentally, was the best for a last-place team since Babe Ruth's first year in the outfield.

This team was certainly unusual, but it must have been boring as hell to watch. The Padres played 30 games in which the winning team scored 1 or 2 runs. Here are the stats for San Diego pitchers in those games:

IP          H/9        BB/9     SO/9     ERA        W-L

278       5.99      2.56      5.70      1.07      13-17

The 17 losses in games when the winner scored two runs or less isn't a record. The 1907 Cardinals had 18, and there may have been others. 

The pitcher everyone notices when they look at the '71 Padres is Dave Roberts, who finished 14-17 with a 2.10 ERA. If you take Roberts' losses and no-decisions, you get 146 innings with a 2.83 ERA -- and a record of zero and 17.

Roberts' average game score as a starter was a very good 60.35. As a test, I did a check of major league pitchers in 1971 who posted a game score between 57 and 63. There were 483 instances, and a little over 200 wins for the starters. Give Roberts the same percentage, and he adds only one more win -- but he'd sure lose some of those losses.

This team also had a unusual ability to make as little use of possible of its talents. Rookie Enzo Hernadez played shortstop, but also batted leadoff. He was able to reach scoring position under his own power 33 times and delivered 12 RBI in 618 plate appearances. About his only good stat was that he hit .306 against the Dodgers, but against LA he also scored one run in 13 games.

Don Mason was the second baseman. He hit .139 as the fourth second baseman for the Giants in 1970, so the Padres made him the starter and No. 2 hitter. Unfortunately, Mason was a No. 2 hitter in the wrong sense of the term. He had 15 extra-base hits and 11 RBI to go with his .212 batting average and .270 on-base percentage. (Oddly enough, he hit .267 against the Dodgers.)

1910 Highlanders

I wrote about this team on another blog. To summarize this group:

1. They were the only team in the American League in 1910 without a Hall of Famer on the roster. Their best position player was Hal Chase, who was probably trying to lose some games on purpose.

2. They traded an outfielder who had 18 Win Shares in 1909 and a pitcher who went 14-11 with a 1.88 ERA for a 38-year-old catcher who would hit .188 in 27 games.

3. Their pitching staff had a composite career record of 75-77 entering the season. Two guys who combined for more than half of those 75 wins would combine to go 2-6 in 1910 with an ERA nearly two runs over the league average.

4. Their second baseman had career highs of 34 walks and 16 stolen bases.

5. Their third baseman hit .218 in 1910.

6. Their shortstop hit .236 in 1909, the highest average of his career to that point.

7. Their left fielder hit .253 in 95 games in 1910.

8. Their center fielder had a career .264 batting average with 11 stolen bases entering the season.

9. Their right fielder entered the season with 184 at bats in 75 games and was on his fifth team.

10. They finished 88-63 and in second place.