Baseball Roundtable Trivia Teaser – I Got This Under Control

Yesterday (April 17, 2019), the Cubs and Marlins faced off in Miami.  It wasn’t a particularly memorable game – the Cubs won 6-0.  Something did catch BBRT’s attention, however.  In the nine-inning contest, only one walk was issued (by Marlins’ starter Sandy Alcantara).  That compares to a 2019 MLB average of 5.26 walks (combined) per game through yesterday.  That spurred me to take a look at pitchers who “took control of the situation” – and prompted today’s Baseball Roundtable Trivia Teaser.

BASEBALL ROUNDTABLE TRIVIA TEASER

When you look at the MLB leaders in fewest walks per nine innings in a season, one thing stands out.  Only one of the top 25 qualifying seasons occurred since 1900. (Keep in mind, the four-ball walk rule didn’t come into play until 1889.)  Your question: Who is the only post-1899 MLB player to record one of the 25 lowest-ever  walks-per-nine innings rates? 

A couple of hints:  He came in at a very respectable number seven – and he exhibited that control not just post-1899, but also post-1999.

Answer:  Twins’ right-hander Carlos Silva, who – in 2005 – walked just nine batters (two of those intentionally) in 188 1/3 innings (a 0.4301 batters-per nine rate).  This gives Silva the best single-season walks-per nine rate since 1900, the seventh-best all time and makes him one of only eleven pitchers in MLB history to record a qualifying season of less than .50 walks-per nine.  Silva went 9-8, 3.44 in 27 starts that season.  Silva had a nine season MLB career (2002-2010 for the Phillies, Twins, Mariners And Cubs) – going 70-70, 4.68.  In 1,241 career innings, he walked 238 and fanned 554.  His best season was 2004, when he went 14-8, 4.21 for Minnesota.

Note: If you are wondering, the best-ever BB/9 ratio belongs to George Zettlein of the 1876 National League Philadelphia Athletics, who walked just six batters in 234 innings. (0.2308 per nine frames pitched). Keep in mind that, in 1876, it took eight balls outside the zone to work a walk.  Zettlein, by the way, went 4-20, 3.88 that season.

A TALE OF TWO BUBBA’S

The MLB record for the most consecutive innings pitched without issuing a free pass belongs to the Kansas City Athletics’ Bill Fischer – at 84 1/3.  Fischer walked the first batter he faced (the Indians’ Bubba Phillips) in a start on August 3, 1962 and didn’t walk another batter that game.  (He went the distance in a 1-0 loss.)  In fact, he didn’t walk another batter until the final day of the season (September 30), when he issued a free pass to the Tigers’ Bubba Morton in the bottom of the fifth inning. In between, he tossed his 84 1/3 walk-less frames and put up 12 straight walk-less appearances (11 starts).

As you might guess, the best career walks-per nine inning rates are dominated by pitchers whose careers ended before 1900.  The best of all?  That was Hall of Famer Candy Cummings, whose career spanned six seasons (1872-77). Cummings walked 113 batters in 2,149 2/3 innings – for a ratio of 0.4731. His final stat line was 145-94, 2.42, with 233 complete games in 241 starts.

The first primarily post-1899 hurler to appear on the career list is Deacon Phillipe, whose career spanned 13 seasons (1899-1911).  The Pirates’ righty walked 363 batter in 2,607 innings pitched (1.2532 per nine innings) for 16th place.  The only other post-1900 players in the top twenty are Babe Adams (19 seasons between 1906 and 1926 and a 1.2910/9 ratio) in the 18th spot and Dan Quisenberry (1979-90, with a 1.3974/9 ratio) at number twenty..

OKAY, SO WE DIDN’T ALWAYS TRACK EVERYTHING

Photo by apardavila

MLB didn’t really get into pitch-by-pitch record keeping until 1988.  However, since that time, the then Oakland A’s Bartolo Colon holds the record for consecutive strikes thrown in a game (strikes, foul balls, balls put in play) at 38. His string started with the second pitch of the fifth inning (against the Angels in Anaheim) and went through the seventh pitch of the eighth frame.  In between, he put together a string of 11 batters without tossing a “ball.” Colon, by the way, threw eight innings of four-hit shutout ball in the 6-0 Athletics’ victory.  He threw 82 strikes and 26 balls.

Primary Resource: Baseball-Reference.com

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