Once again, it’s time for Trivia(l) Tidbit Tuesday. I hope you are enjoying this weekly presentation of baseball occurrences that for some reason caught The Roundtable’s eye. (I’m particularly fond of unexpected performances and statistical coincidences.) These won’t necessarily be momentous occurrences, just events, statistics or coincidences that grabbed my attention. I’m also drawn to baseball “unicorns,” those one-of-a-kind accomplishment or statistics.
Photo: Johnmaxmena2, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
This week’s Trivial(l) Tidbit was spurred by the 2024 performance of Pirates “phenom” Paul Skenes. The 22-year-old righty – the first overall pick (Pirates) in the 2023 MLB draft – made his way to the majors after just 12 minor-league appearances (and no minor-league decisions). (For those who like to know such things, Skenes was 24-6, 2.18 in three college seasons – Air Force Academy and Louisiana State.)
Skenes made his MLB debut on May 1, 2024, giving up three runs (six hits, two walks, seven strikeouts) in a four-inning outing against the Cubs (in Pittsburgh). In his next appearance, a May 17 start against the Cubs at Wrigley, Skenes got the win with six no-hit, one-walk, 11-whiff shutout innings – and the rest is history.
By the All Star break, Skenes was 6-0, 1.90. He made a bit of history becoming the first player to be named to an MLB All Star Team in the first season after being drafted and just the fifth rookie moundsman to start an All Star Game – joining: Hideo Nomo – 1995; Fernando Valenzuela -1981; Mark Fidrych – 1976; and Dave Stenhouse -1962). Skenes finished the season at 11-3, 1.96. That earned run average would have been enough to win the ERA title, but Skenes’ 133 innings pitched were 29 short of qualifying.
Well, as usual with The Roundtable, one thing led to another and I began to dig into rookie earned run averages. Turns out the lowest earned run average among rookies with at least 100 innings pitched in their season belongs to Hall of Famer Tim “Smiling Tim” Keefe (6-6, 0.86 in 105 innings for the 1880 National League Troy Trojans). Sign of the Times: Keefe logged his 105 innings in just 12 appearances. If you want to limit yourself to the Modern Era (post-1900), the honor goes to Charles “Babe” Adams of the 1909 Pirates (12-3, 1.11 in 13o innings). Keep in mind that the league average ERA was 2.37 in 1880 and 2.53 in 1909.
Keefe pitched in 14 MLB seasons (1880-93), going 342-225, 2.63 and topping 30 wins in five seasons. Adams pitched in 19 MLB seasons (1906-07, 1909-16, 1918-26), going 194-140, 2.76 and twice topping 20 wins in a campaign.
Photo: MLB / Detroit Tigers, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
As usual, I kept looking, this time focusing on MLB rookie pitchers who won an earned run title. As the chart at the end of this post shows, there have been 25 – the most recent was the Tigers’ very colorful and uber-talented Mark “The Bird” Fidrych in 1976 (19-9, 2.34). To illustrate how times have changed, the 21-year-old Fidrych threw a league-leading 24 complete games in 29 starts. Well as usual, one thing led to another, and I looked a little deeper. Fidrych recorded those 24 complete games even though he did not make the first start of his rookie season until May 15. In his first 13 MLB starts (May 15-July 20), Fidrych pitched 12 complete games, including two 11-inning outings – and logged 120 1/3 innings. Despite the truly “phenom-enal” start to his MLB career, after his 19 wins in 1976, Fidrych won only 10 more MLB games. From 1977 through 1980, he went 10-10, 4.28, wth tencompletre games in 27 starts. It could have been overwork in his rookie campaign or the impact of a 1977 Spring Training knee injury on his pitching motion, but in mid-1977 he began to deal with arm problems. He made his final MLB start October 1, 1980 (and, in 1985, underwent surgery for a torn rotator cuff). I used the word “colorful” to describe Fidrych. For younger “post-Fidrych “ readers, I suggest you check out YouTube for videos of his eccentric mound presence. He was a treasure.
Photographer and Author Joe McNally in “Goodbye Bird …”, a tribute to Fidrych, who passed away at the age of 54 in 2009 (an accident on his farm), wrote that as a young star, Fidrych “threw strikes, talked to the ball and skipped around the mound like a three-year-old in an FAO Schwartz.”
Side Note: Of the 25 MLB rookies to win an Era title (as listed in stathead.com), 11 were in the Negro Leagues (1920-48), with its much shorter schedules and qualifying limitations. For example, Gene Richardson of the Kansas City Monarchs, is credited with the 1947 Negro American League ERA crown with a 3-0, 1.33 record (just three starts). As Negro League stats from 1920 through 1948 are further explored and documented some of these numbers could change.
Fidrych, by the way is not the youngest rookie to win an ERA title. Henry Krause of the 1909 Athletics (18-8, 1.39) and Chet Nichols of the 1951 Braves (11-8, 2.88) both captured ERA titles in their age-20 seasons. On the other end of the spectrum, Jim Turner was 33-year-old rookie (Boston Bees) when he went 20-11, with a National League-best 2.38 ERA in 1937. He also led the league in complete games (24) and shutouts (five). Turner was in his fifteenth professional season (with 218 minor-league wins on his resume) when he finally made the big leagues. He went on to pitch in nine MLB seasons (1937-45), going 69-60, 3.22.
Jim Turner (above is one of just four rookie ERA leaders who also won 20 games in that rookie campaign). Joining Turner are: the 1948 Indians’ Gene Bearden (20-7, 2.43); 1911 Naps’ Vean Gregg (23-7, 1.80); and 1910 Cubs’ Leonard “King” Cole (20-4, 1.80).
For My Minnesota Readers – A Minneapolis Birthday Present
In a 1978 SABR Baseball Research Journal article, Randolph Linthurst noted that the Minneapolis Millers played a role in Jim Turner’s getting to the show. After years of toiling in the minors, Turner started a game on August 6, 1936 – his 32nd birthday – or the American Association Indianapolis Indians against the Minneapolis Millers. A Boston Bees scout happened to be in the stands as Turner tossed a shutout and earned a shot at the big leagues.
I was a bit surprised to see that, since the MLB Rookie of the Year Award was established in 1947, the AL and NL have seen six rookie pitchers win the ERA title and only two of those won Rookie of the Year Honora: Mark Fidrych in 1976 and Gary Peters in 1973.
Every Post Needs a Unicorn
The unicorn in this post is Hall of Famer Hoyt Wilhelm, when won the NL ERA Crown as a rookie in 1952 (Giants), with a 15-3, 2.43 season, with 11 saves. In the process, Wilhelm became the first – and still only – MLB pitcher to win an ERA title in a season in which he did not make a single start. For more on Wilhelm, click here.
A few other tidbits.
- Hoyt Wilhelm had the longest career of any of the rookie ERA leaders – 21 seasons (1952-72) and 1,070 appearances.
- Wilhelm also had the most career wins of any pitcher on this list – 143 (122 losses). He edged out Mike Garcia at 142-91 over 14 seasons (1948-61).
- The fewest career wins by any rookie ERA leader is five by Jimmy Shields (5-7 over two seasons – 1928-29) and Gene Richardson (5-3 over seasons – 1947-48). Both pitched in the Negro Leagues.
- The only players on the list to make it into the Hall of Fame are Hoyt Wilhelm and Bill Foster.
Primary Resource: stathead.com.
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