What’s in a Name?
This article is inspired, on several fronts, by Vincent Velasquez, the young starting pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies. Velasquez is only 23, and headed into this season with a career 4.37 ERA, 19 career games (with only 7 starts), and up until last week he was probably best known for being part of the trade that sent Ken Giles from Philadelphia to Houston, as well as someone who was considered to be an intriguing sleeper in fantasy drafts.
As you may be aware, he pitched quite a game about a week ago. It got some attention, but it could have received a whole lot more. In case you missed it, here’s his pitching line, courtesy of Baseball-reference.com:
|
Date
|
Opponent
|
Result
|
IP
|
H
|
R
|
ER
|
BB
|
SO
|
Batters Faced
|
Pitches
|
Game Score
|
|
4/14/16
|
San Diego
|
W 3-0
|
9
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
16
|
30
|
113
|
97
|
A whale of a game, for sure, especially for a young pitcher making just his 21st Major League appearance, and only his 9th start. Later, we’ll dive more into the performance, the rarity of it, other similar performances, and what it might imply. But first, I wanted to talk about Velasquez from a totally different, more superficial angle:
His name.
Velasquez has one of my favorite names among active baseball players. He just sounds like a star. Vincent Velasquez. Say it a few times out loud. It rolls off the tongue. He sounds like he is destined to be a celebrity, perhaps featured in commercials commenting on a car’s "fine Corinthian leather", or perhaps telling someone that "You look marvelous!" and "It is better to look good than to feel good!".
His name could have easily taken a bad turn and gone horribly wrong. For example, it could have turned out like Edinson Volquez. Volquez has a last name that is somewhat similar to Velasquez, but it’s entirely too cumbersome to pronounce his whole name. Say it once: Edinson Volquez. It doesn’t flow, it’s too choppy, it’s too harsh, and it unfolds like a cheap card table.
But…."Vincent Velasquez"? Beautiful. "Hello….my name is Vincent Velasquez…prepare to be swept off your feet".
It has a terrific flow to it, and I also think part of it is the double initial effect. That’s a very distinctive trait for a name. Part of the appeal of Mickey Mantle, aside from the obvious talent, was that he just had a great name. Mickey Mantle. Double-M. His name sounded like a star’s name.
(Although, in an interesting footnote…..have you heard the story behind the reference to Joe DiMaggio in the song "Mrs. Robinson"? Paul Simon’s favorite Yankee was actually Mickey Mantle, and he met Mantle on the Dick Cavett Show, and when he was asked why he didn’t use Mantle’s name instead of DiMaggio’s, Simon explained that it was about the syllables and how many beats there were. "Where have you gone, Mickey Mantle?" wouldn’t have sounded as good)
I think Velasquez’s name also is enhanced by the fact that the letter for the double initial is a "V". It’s a lot less common. In fact, I think he may already be the best "Double V" player in Major League history. The best candidates I could find are Virgil Vasquez, Vince Ventura, and Vito Valentinetti. Valentinetti had a 5-year career. The others were even shorter. I like Vincent’s chances.
In fact, Velasquez could end up as the most famous V.V. in history if things break his way. Right now, the leaders in the clubhouse are probably Vince Vaughn, Vivian (Ethel Mertz) Vance, and Kiss guitarist (briefly) Vinnie Vincent, unless you include fictional characters like Vicki Vale or Victor/Victoria.
So, in tribute to Vincent Velasquez, here are two all-time teams that he could, in time, potentially make. He’s not there yet, not by a long shot, but one can always hope:
|
|
All Time Double Initial Team
|
|
|
All Time "V" Surname Team
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Position
|
Name
|
|
Position
|
Name
|
|
C
|
Bob Boone
|
|
C
|
Jason Varitek
|
|
1B
|
Mark McGwire
|
|
1B
|
Joey Votto
|
|
2B
|
Frankie Frisch
|
|
2B
|
Jose Vidro
|
|
3B
|
Gary Gaetti
|
|
3B
|
Robin Ventura
|
|
SS
|
Troy Tulowitzki
|
|
SS
|
Arky Vaughan
|
|
LF
|
Barry Bonds
|
|
LF
|
Bobby Veach
|
|
CF
|
Mickey Mantle
|
|
CF
|
George Van Haltren
|
|
RF
|
Harry Heilmann
|
|
RF
|
Andy Van Slyke
|
|
SP1
|
Robin Roberts
|
|
SP1
|
Dazzy Vance
|
|
SP2
|
Don Drysdale
|
|
SP2
|
Frank Viola
|
|
SP3
|
Bert Blyleven
|
|
SP3
|
Justin Verlander
|
|
SP4
|
Mike Mussina
|
|
SP4
|
Hippo Vaughn
|
|
SP5
|
Rick Reuschel
|
|
SP5
|
Fernando Valenzuela
|
|
RP1
|
Mike Marshall
|
|
RP1
|
Dave Veres
|
|
RP2
|
Ron Reed
|
|
RP2
|
Ed Vande Berg
|
|
P
|
Wilbur Wood
|
|
P
|
Javier Vazquez
|
|
P
|
Freddie Fitzsimmons
|
|
P
|
Johnny Vander Meer
|
|
P
|
Harvey Haddix
|
|
P
|
Bob Veale
|
|
Res C
|
Darren Daulton
|
|
Res C
|
Ozzie Virgil
|
|
Res IF
|
Joe Judge
|
|
Res IF
|
Mickey Vernon
|
|
Res IF
|
Placido Polanco
|
|
Res IF
|
Omar Vizquel
|
|
Res IF
|
Doug DeCinces
|
|
Res IF
|
John Valentin
|
|
Res OF
|
Sammy Sosa
|
|
Res OF
|
Greg Vaughn
|
|
Res OF
|
Joe Jackson
|
|
Res OF
|
Shane Victorino
|
|
Res UT
|
Bobby Bonds
|
|
Res UT
|
Jose Valentin
|
|
Mgr
|
Bruce Bochy
|
|
Mgr
|
Bill Virdon
|
The "Double Initial" team excludes anyone whose double initial is achieved by virtue of a nickname, such as Buddy Bell, Dizzy Dean, or Red Ruffing. I like Vincent’s chances slightly more of potentially making the "V" squad, but both of those rotations could be tough to break into.
Good luck, Vince.
Back to the Game
So, how rare was the performance by Velasquez? Well, there are lots of ways to evaluate the performance and produce lists of comparable achievements. One simple way is to simply look at pitchers who accomplished the following:
- Pitched a 9-inning complete game (eliminates "mere" 8-inning complete games, as well as those who went extra innings in achieving the results)
- Pitched a shutout
- Struck out 16 or more batters
- Didn’t walk anyone
Yes, you can question the criteria as being too specific to Velasquez’s results (since this would eliminate anyone with "just" 15 strikeouts), and that certainly has some merit. We’ll look at another data pull later that is a little more encompassing. But, this is a starting point.
Using the "Game Index" tool on Baseball-reference.com, here’s the list of players that met all those criteria above (sorted by Bill’s Game Score measure):
|
Player
|
Date
|
Tm
|
Opp
|
Score
|
IP
|
H
|
R
|
ER
|
BB
|
SO
|
GSc
|
|
Kerry Wood
|
5/6/1998
|
CHC
|
HOU
|
2-0
|
9
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
20
|
105
|
|
Max Scherzer
|
10/3/2015
|
WSN
|
NYM
|
2-0
|
9
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
17
|
104
|
|
Roger Clemens
|
8/25/1998
|
TOR
|
KCR
|
3-0
|
9
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
18
|
99
|
|
Roger Clemens
|
9/18/1996
|
BOS
|
DET
|
4-0
|
9
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
20
|
97
|
|
Vincent Velasquez
|
4/14/2016
|
PHI
|
SDP
|
3-0
|
9
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
16
|
97
|
|
Dwight Gooden
|
9/12/1984
|
NYM
|
PIT
|
2-0
|
9
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
16
|
93
|
|
Randy Johnson
|
8/28/1998
|
HOU
|
PIT
|
2-0
|
9
|
7
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
16
|
89
|
A pretty good list. Definitely some famous efforts….Kerry Wood’s dominant 20 K game, Max Scherzer’s late season near-perfect game last year, Roger Clemens’ 20 K game, etc. Hard-throwing, dominant pitchers at the top of their games. On the surface, at least, Velasquez’s performance is right up there with the others, and he allowed only 3 hits, fewer than Johnson, Gooden, and Clemens ’96 did.
Before proceeding…..there was another thing that inspired this article. When I heard about Velasquez recording 16 K’s with zero walks, that combination made me think of this passage that I read many years ago. See if you remember it as well:
"Signature Significance"
The following excerpt is from The Bill James 1985 Baseball Abstract, page 29, under the heading "Signature Significance" (The bold/italicized emphasis is my formatting, not Bill’s):
--Beginning of Excerpt--
"It seems strange to say, then, that there are separations of data in baseball that are more significant than baseball men think they are. But in certain relatively rare cases of extreme performance, significant separations in data can occur in surprisingly small samples, including one game. A perfect example would be the game in which Roger Clemens struck out 15 batters without walking anyone. That game, in and of itself, presents credible, or "significant" evidence that Clemens is a pitcher of some quality. Why? Because a poor pitcher never (almost literally never) has such a game."
……Then, later in the excerpt, Bill states this:
"Strikeout to walk ratio is an excellent indicator of a pitcher’s ability to win, and pitcher who strikes out 15 and walks none in a game is almost certain to have a good strikeout to walk ratio.
We are in the habit of looking for direct significance; one game is never directly significant. No one game makes a man a proven pitcher. What small data samples can occasionally provide is indicative significance—the significance of the signature they bear."
--End of Excerpt--
Gee….has it really been over 30 years since Bill wrote that? You may remember this as one of the 2 pieces he wrote under the Detroit Tigers section in that 1985 Abstract (written after the conclusion of the 1984 championship season for the Tigers), the other piece being the "informal" exercise comparing the ’84 Tigers, position-by-position, to the other great teams of that era (like the ’76 Reds, the ’73 A’s, the ’61 Yankees, etc.). Which, by the way…..might make for another good idea for an article…an updated version of that exercise. I’ll keep that one in mind….
I think one of the really impressive things about that passage was Bill’s observation and conclusion that Clemens’ 15K, zero walk effort in the prior year, by itself, was a strong indicator of his quality. Keep in mind that Bill wrote this in 1985, after the ’84 season. At the time he wrote that, Roger Clemens was only 22 years old, with a career record of 9-4 with a 4.32 ERA. He had a good rookie year, and he was certainly a well-regarded prospect, having been drafted in the first round of the ’83 draft and having posted sub-2.00 ERA’s at every minor league stop along the way. Still, this was written after 1984…..Clemens was still a year away from his breakout year of 1986. It was a rather prescient observation for Bill to make at that time.
So, I was curious…..what if we used that 15K / 0 BB combination from the Clemens reference to see how often that has been achieved? Here are all of the pitchers who accomplished that result. In this case, there weren’t any restrictions put on the innings….it includes those who pitched fewer than 9 innings, as well as those who pitched into extra innings. The only criteria were 15 or more strikeouts, and zero walks. Again, using the Baseball-Reference.com Game Index tool, sorted by Game Score:
|
Player
|
Date
|
Tm
|
Opp
|
Rslt
|
IP
|
H
|
R
|
ER
|
BB
|
SO
|
GSc
|
|
Kerry Wood
|
5/6/1998
|
CHC
|
HOU
|
W 2-0
|
9
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
20
|
105
|
|
Max Scherzer
|
10/3/2015
|
WSN
|
NYM
|
W 2-0
|
9
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
17
|
104
|
|
Clayton Kershaw
|
6/18/2014
|
LAD
|
COL
|
W 8-0
|
9
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
15
|
102
|
|
Nolan Ryan
|
8/17/1990
|
TEX
|
CHW
|
W 1-0
|
10
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
15
|
101
|
|
Vida Blue
|
7/9/1971
|
OAK
|
CAL
|
W 1-0
|
11
|
7
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
17
|
100
|
|
Luis Tiant
|
7/3/1968
|
CLE
|
MIN
|
W 1-0
|
10
|
6
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
19
|
99
|
|
Roger Clemens
|
8/25/1998
|
TOR
|
KCR
|
W 3-0
|
9
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
18
|
99
|
|
Corey Kluber
|
5/13/2015
|
CLE
|
STL
|
W 2-0
|
8
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
18
|
98
|
|
Pedro Martinez
|
9/10/1999
|
BOS
|
NYY
|
W 3-1
|
9
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
17
|
98
|
|
Erik Bedard
|
7/7/2007
|
BAL
|
TEX
|
W 3-0
|
9
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
15
|
98
|
|
Pedro Martinez
|
5/12/2000
|
BOS
|
BAL
|
W 9-0
|
9
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
15
|
98
|
|
Van Mungo
|
9/29/1935
|
BRO
|
PHI
|
W 2-0
|
9
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
15
|
98
|
|
Randy Johnson
|
5/8/2001
|
ARI
|
CIN
|
W 4-3
|
9
|
3
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
20
|
97
|
|
Roger Clemens
|
9/18/1996
|
BOS
|
DET
|
W 4-0
|
9
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
20
|
97
|
|
Roger Clemens
|
4/29/1986
|
BOS
|
SEA
|
W 3-1
|
9
|
3
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
20
|
97
|
|
Vincent Velasquez
|
4/14/2016
|
PHI
|
SDP
|
W 3-0
|
9
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
16
|
97
|
|
Johan Santana
|
8/19/2007
|
MIN
|
TEX
|
W 1-0
|
8
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
17
|
95
|
|
Sam McDowell
|
5/1/1968
|
CLE
|
OAK
|
W 3-1
|
9
|
3
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
16
|
95
|
|
James Shields
|
10/2/2012
|
TBR
|
BAL
|
L 0-1
|
9
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
15
|
94
|
|
Dwight Gooden
|
9/12/1984
|
NYM
|
PIT
|
W 2-0
|
9
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
16
|
93
|
|
Pedro Martinez
|
7/23/2000
|
BOS
|
CHW
|
W 1-0
|
9
|
6
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
15
|
90
|
|
Randy Johnson
|
8/28/1998
|
HOU
|
PIT
|
W 2-0
|
9
|
7
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
16
|
89
|
|
Roger Clemens
|
7/12/1997
|
TOR
|
BOS
|
W 3-1
|
8
|
4
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
16
|
86
|
|
Mario Soto
|
8/17/1982
|
CIN
|
NYM
|
W 9-2
|
9
|
4
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
15
|
86
|
|
Pedro Martinez
|
5/7/1999
|
BOS
|
ANA
|
W 6-0
|
8
|
6
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
15
|
85
|
|
Roger Clemens
|
8/21/1984
|
BOS
|
KCR
|
W 11-1
|
9
|
7
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
15
|
84
|
|
Mark Prior
|
6/26/2003
|
CHC
|
MIL
|
L 3-5
|
8
|
4
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
16
|
82
|
|
Mike Mussina
|
9/24/2000
|
BAL
|
BOS
|
W 1-0
|
7
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
15
|
82
|
|
Chris Archer
|
6/2/2015
|
TBR
|
LAA
|
W 6-1
|
8
|
6
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
15
|
81
|
|
Curt Schilling
|
9/1/1997
|
PHI
|
NYY
|
W 5-1
|
8
|
7
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
16
|
80
|
|
Mark Langston
|
5/10/1988
|
SEA
|
TOR
|
W 4-2
|
9
|
8
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
16
|
79
|
|
Frank Tanana
|
6/21/1975
|
CAL
|
TEX
|
W 4-2
|
9
|
9
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
17
|
78
|
|
Dwight Gooden
|
9/17/1984
|
NYM
|
PHI
|
L 1-2
|
8
|
7
|
2
|
1
|
0
|
16
|
78
|
|
Randy Johnson
|
6/30/1999
|
ARI
|
CIN
|
L 0-2
|
8
|
7
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
17
|
77
|
|
Michael Pineda
|
5/10/2015
|
NYY
|
BAL
|
W 6-2
|
7
|
6
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
16
|
77
|
|
Sid Fernandez
|
7/14/1989
|
NYM
|
ATL
|
L 2-3
|
8
|
6
|
3
|
3
|
0
|
16
|
74
|
|
Sterling Hitchcock
|
8/29/1998
|
SDP
|
MON
|
L 1-3
|
8
|
6
|
3
|
3
|
0
|
15
|
73
|
|
Randy Johnson
|
6/14/1993
|
SEA
|
KCR
|
W 6-3
|
8
|
6
|
3
|
3
|
0
|
15
|
73
|
|
John Smoltz
|
4/10/2005
|
ATL
|
NYM
|
L 1-6
|
7.1
|
8
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
15
|
69
|
|
Randy Johnson
|
6/24/1997
|
SEA
|
OAK
|
L 1-4
|
9
|
11
|
4
|
4
|
0
|
19
|
68
|
|
Gary Nolan
|
6/7/1967
|
CIN
|
SFG
|
L 3-4
|
7.2
|
8
|
3
|
3
|
0
|
15
|
66
|
As you can see, some of those were less "dominant" than others. As you get towards the bottom of the list, you start to see pitchers who didn’t even reach 8 innings (which makes the K’s more impressive, although it makes the other things like walks, hits, and runs less impressive) and you also start to see more hits and runs given up. Still, they met the "controlling the strike zone" criteria.
There have been 40 games that meet that criteria, achieved by 29 different pitchers. Here’s the list by pitcher, including the number of games that each made the list:
|
Name
|
# of Times
|
|
Roger Clemens
|
5
|
|
Randy Johnson
|
5
|
|
Pedro Martinez
|
4
|
|
Dwight Gooden
|
2
|
|
Chris Archer
|
1
|
|
Erik Bedard
|
1
|
|
Vida Blue
|
1
|
|
Sid Fernandez
|
1
|
|
Sterling Hitchcock
|
1
|
|
Clayton Kershaw
|
1
|
|
Corey Kluber
|
1
|
|
Mark Langston
|
1
|
|
Sam McDowell
|
1
|
|
Van Mungo
|
1
|
|
Mike Mussina
|
1
|
|
Gary Nolan
|
1
|
|
Michael Pineda
|
1
|
|
Mark Prior
|
1
|
|
Nolan Ryan
|
1
|
|
Johan Santana
|
1
|
|
Max Scherzer
|
1
|
|
Curt Schilling
|
1
|
|
James Shields
|
1
|
|
John Smoltz
|
1
|
|
Mario Soto
|
1
|
|
Frank Tanana
|
1
|
|
Luis Tiant
|
1
|
|
Vincent Velasquez
|
1
|
|
Kerry Wood
|
1
|
So, certainly doing this multiple times is very indicative of quality, as Clemens and Johnson did it 5 times each, Pedro did it 4 times, and Gooden twice.
How about the others? Well, the 4 mentioned above (Clemens, Johnson, Pedro, and Gooden) have all won Cy Young awards during their careers, as have Vida Blue, Max Scherzer, John Smoltz, Johan Santana, Corey Kluber, and Clayton Kershaw.
Others? Nolan Ryan is in the Hall of Fame, while Curt Schilling and Mike Mussina are strong candidates, and Luis Tiant is a good candidate to make it someday. Obviously, high quality is present among this group.
Who does that leave?
Frank Tanana and Mark Langston had some similarities. Tanana’s career was longer and he won a lot more games, but they were both lefties, both around 6’2", 180, both pitched 8 seasons for the Angels, both had seasons early in their careers where they led the AL in strikeouts, both had career rWARs of between 50-60. Tanana finished as high as 3rd in the Cy Young balloting, Langston as high as 2nd. I’d say Tanana was ultimately more successful, but they both were certainly high quality pitchers.
Sam McDowell is kind of in that mold too…..another hard-throwing lefty, led the league in strikeouts many times, finished as high as 3rd in the Cy Young. In fact, Langston is on McDowell’s top 10 comp list on Baseball-reference.com.
To a lesser degree Sid Fernandez was in that mold too. His career wasn’t as accomplished as the other 3 lefties just mentioned, but he still finished as high as 7th in the Cy Young, and led the NL 3 times in fewest H/9.
If you look on El Sid’s top 10 comp list, you see none other than Mario Soto. Soto was a terrific pitcher, a fact that was at least partially obscured by pitching on some truly bad Reds teams. Despite the lack of support, he went 71-50, 3.05 from 1980 to 1984, and finished with a 2nd, a 5th, a 6th, and a 9th place finish in various Cy Young balloting. Over that 5 year period, he was probably as good a pitcher as anyone other than Steve Carlton, probably about even with Dave Stieb and Fernando Valenzuela.
A decade or so before Soto, the Reds had another young star. Gary Nolan was unquestionably a "quality" pitcher, from his sparkling debut as a 19-year when he led the NL in K/9 to several years later when he morphed into more of a control artist who didn’t strike out that many. Injuries basically cut his career potential in half, but when he was healthy, he was awfully good. He finished as high as 5th in the Cy Young.
Of course, Gary Nolan looked like Nolan Ryan in terms of longevity when compared to those 2 star-crossed Cubbie teammates, Kerry Wood and Mark Prior, both of whom made the list, about 5 years apart. They were quite the duo in 2003…..they were both All-Stars, Wood led the NL in K’s and fewest H/9, while Prior went 18-6 with a 2.43 ERA, and was 3rd in the Cy Young, and the Cubs made the playoffs where they ultimately ran afoul of the Marlins and the Bartman incident. Prior was only 22, Wood still only 26. The possibilities seemed endless, and although their careers didn’t pan out as anticipated as they both struggled with injuries, there’s no doubt that they were high quality pitchers.
James Shields, Chris Archer, and Michael Pineda are all still active players. Shields, at 34, of course has been around much longer than the other 2, and has had a pretty nice career, placing as high as 3rd in the Cy Young balloting.
Archer and Pineda, both 27, are regarded as very talented pitchers who have their moments, including Archer placing 5th in last year’s Cy Young balloting, but a lot of their final stories have yet to be written. They both made this list last year, within a month of each other.
That leaves us with the following:
Erik Bedard
Sterling Hitchcock
Van Mungo
Let’s start with Van Mungo, probably better known by his full name, Van Lingle Mungo. Now, that’s a name! If you get some free time and feel in the mood for a good combination of bossa nova mixed with baseball nostalgia, pull up the song "Van Lingle Mungo" on YouTube.
Mungo’s 15K/0 BB game stands out on this list because of when he pitched his gem. He threw it in 1935, and then it was another 32 years before the next occurrence (Gary Nolan in ’67).
In addition to that, though, Mungo also did it in a year when he only struck out 143 and walked 90 (although he did lead the league in K/9 innings). Strikeouts were much less common then….about 60% fewer K/9 than today’s standards. He pitched his gem in his last start of the season (on the last day of the season, in the first game of a double header), it was the only time that season that he started a game and went more than 5 innings where he didn’t walk anyone, and he only had one other start that year where he struck out more than 10. He was unquestionably a quality pitcher, a 3-time All-Star who, in various seasons, led the league in innings, strikeouts, shutouts, K/9 innings (3 times) and FIP (2 times), but it honestly was kind of a fluky game for him.
Erik Bedard might not strike everyone as a "quality" pitcher, but for a couple of years there with Baltimore he was very desirable, going 28-16 in 2006 & 2007, finishing 5th in the Cy Young balloting one year. After ’07, the Orioles traded him to Seattle, where, among others, they obtained Adam Jones, for which Baltimore is eternally grateful. He didn’t turn out to be a great pitcher, but over those couple of years, you could make a case that he was a top-10 pitcher.
Finally, Sterling Hitchcock. He’s probably the "least quality" pitcher on here, although he had his moments, highlighted by going 3-0 with a 1.22 ERA for San Diego in the 1998 postseason.
By the way, what do you get if you relax the criteria to 14 or more strikeouts (and still keep walks at zero)? The results basically double, as it includes an additional 43 instances. Some of the same pitchers already named appear at the 14 K / 0 BB level, such as Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling, and Johan Santana, but it also pulls in such notables as Tom Seaver, Fergie Jenkins, Sandy Koufax, Clayton Kershaw, Jim Bunning, Urban Shocker, Mickey Lolich, and Mike Scott.
Yu Darvish has already had 3 games of 14 K’s with 0 walks. The two best games that had 14 K’s with zero walks were the perfect games tossed by Matt Cain in 2012 and Sandy Koufax in 1965. Two other interesting results from this group were the 1-hitter from Bobby Witt, who generally had control issues and wouldn’t be expected to have too many games with zero walks, and Terry Mulholland, who was a good control pitcher but not much of a strikeout artist. He pitched his 14/0 gem in 1993, and he only had 3 games that year where he had more than 6 strikeouts – he had an 8, a 9, and a 14.
So What About Vincent?
So, what does this all indicate? I do think the list of pitchers having games like this bodes well for Velasquez. While there are a handful of starters mentioned that may not fit everyone’s description of a quality pitcher, it’s still full of players who went on to fine careers. Not 100% of them, of course, and certainly injuries derailed a few, but it’s a pretty compelling list.
One final word of potential caution, though, and that is that we’ve seen 5 of these games in the past 12 months: Pineda, Kluber, Archer, Scherzer, and now Velasquez. One thing that is undeniable is that strikeouts have been on the rise, and continue to rise each year. For each of the last 8 years, strikeouts have gone up. In 2015, we saw 7.7 K/9 innings, a new record. In 2016 so far, it’s up to 8.2. Now, it might not stay there, but basically the forces in the game have resulted in strikeouts continuing to rise. In addition K/BB ratio’s over the last few years have been at their highest levels since the 1880’s, when very few walks occurred.
So, the conditions of the game are such that we may start to see more of these extreme high K / low BB games. When Clemens pitched that 15K / 0 BB that Bill referenced from 1984, K’s/9 innings in Major League Baseball were at 5.4. This year, it’s 8.2, more than 50% higher.
I still think it was a remarkable performance by Velasquez, and even though he followed it up with a disappointing effort the next time out (4 1/3 IP, 5 runs), there were some good signs even in that effort. Only 2 of the runs were earned, and he struck out 4 and, once again, issued zero walks. He now owns a 29-3 K/BB ratio after 3 starts and 19 1/3 IP, an encouraging sign from someone who has struggled some with his control prior to this year. No, I don’t expect him to continue to roll along with a roughly 10:1 K/BB ratio….that’s likely not sustainable for him….but if he truly has harnessed his control, if he is starting to own the strike zone, then he undoubtedly will have some success.
Speaking of K/BB, below is the list of pitchers who have had K/BB of 8:1 or better in a single season, excluding a few pitchers from the 1880’s (Jim Whitney, George Bradley, Henry Boyle, James Burke) who also achieved it:
|
Player
|
K/BB
|
Year
|
|
Phil Hughes
|
11.6
|
2014
|
|
Bret Saberhagen
|
11.0
|
1994
|
|
Cliff Lee
|
10.3
|
2010
|
|
Curt Schilling
|
9.6
|
2002
|
|
Pedro Martinez
|
8.9
|
2000
|
|
Greg Maddux
|
8.9
|
1997
|
|
Pedro Martinez
|
8.5
|
1999
|
|
Ben Sheets
|
8.3
|
2004
|
|
Max Scherzer
|
8.1
|
2015
|
Another interesting list is the pitchers who had the most times leading the league in K/BB. It’s a good one, all Hall of Famers except for Halladay and Schilling, and they’re both likely to make it at some point:
|
Name
|
Time Led League
|
|
Cy Young
|
11
|
|
Walter Johnson
|
9
|
|
Christy Mathewson
|
9
|
|
Lefty Grove
|
8
|
|
Dazzy Vance
|
8
|
|
Roy Halladay
|
5
|
|
Carl Hubbell
|
5
|
|
Fergie Jenkins
|
5
|
|
Robin Roberts
|
5
|
|
Curt Schilling
|
5
|
It’s hard to know what the future holds for Vincent. Despite the caveats, I look forward to watching him develop to see what the rest of his career holds for him. If he can continue to control the strike zone, you have to like his chances, even if he’s currently on a rebuilding team.
In fact, I’m intrigued by all the young pitchers the Phillies have assembled…..Aaron Nola, Jerad Eickhoff (who came over in the Hamels trade), Velasquez…..those are some talented young arms. It was only 5 years ago that the Phillies won over 100 games and had that pitching staff featuring Halladay, Lee, Hamels, and Oswalt that had some people wondering if that could be the greatest rotation of all time. It disintegrated pretty quickly after assembling that rotation, but it looks like there’s the potential for a pretty good young rotation in place now. They’re still more promise than anything….but there is some good potential there.
So, taking it all into account, and in the spirit of alliterative topics such as Vincent Velasquez and Signature Significance…….I wonder if maybe, rather than true Signature Significance (which, after all, is a term that Bill coined), we could label Velasquez’s performance as something else? How about….. "Indicative Impression"?