Yankees Had 20-Game Losers Too
ALSO: WHAT SHOULD MANAGERS DUE WHEN THEIR HITTERS SLUMP?
Pregame Pepper
Entering play Friday, the New York Mets have posted the best bullpen ERA in the National League and fifth best in the majors (2.88) . . .
Their relief corps, led by lights-out closer Edwin Diaz, led both leagues in strikeouts (178) and strikeouts per nine innings (11.67) . . .
The starting pitching has also been surprisingly good, with a 2.68 ERA at CitiField that is the NL’s best and second only to Seattle’s 2.62 in the majors . . .
Reed Garrett has been the biggest surprise, with an 0.47 ERA in 19 innings, a .114 opposing batting average by right-handed hitters, and 32 strikeouts out of 75 batters faced . . .
After retiring Doc Gooden’s No. 16 previously, the Mets will do the same for Darryl Strawberry’s No. 18 in a pre-game ceremony on June 1 . . .
Strawberry remains the team’s career leader in home runs (252) and ranks second in RBI (733) and third in extra-base hits (469).
Leading Off
Yankees 20-Game ... Losers!
By Paul Semendinger, Ed.D.
It has happened rarely, and only once since 1925, but there were six times in the illustrious history of the New York Yankees that a pitcher lost 20-games in a season.
It has been said that one needs to be a very good pitcher in order to lose 20-games. And that's true. A bad pitcher isn't going to get that opportunity. And, as it relates to the Yankees, most of the six pitchers who lost 20-games were very good and were ones who accrued impressive numbers for the franchise in other seasons. One of the players, though, was a pitcher who, until I did this exercise, I had never heard of. (This is where so much of the fun from doing baseball research comes from.)
Let's take a chronological look at the six losingest single season pitchers in Yankees history.
Al Orth (1907): Al Orth enjoyed a 15-year big league career pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies, the Washington Senators, and the New York Highlanders (who would become the Yankees) from 1895 to 1909. In 1901, he won 20-games for the Phillies. In ten different seasons, he pitched more than 200 innings. In 1906, he had his best season. He led the league in innings with 338.2. He also won 27 games that year for the Highlanders. But that season, was his last good one. In 1907, Orth had his 20-loss season going 14-21. The next year, 1908, he went 2-13. In 1909 his career ended - he pitched in just one game that year.
Jack Chesbro (1908) - Jack Chesbro is a Hall of Fame pitcher. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1947. No pitcher in big-league history ever won more games in a season than Chesbro's 41 in 1904. He pitched from 1899 to 1909 for the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Highlanders, and the Boston Red Sox (Chesbro pitched just one game for the Red Sox). He won 20 or more games in a season five times as he amassed a career record of 198-132. Like Al Orth, Chesbro's 20-loss season signaled the end for him. In 1908, Chesbro went 14-20. The next season was his last as he went 0-5.
Joe Lake (1908) - Somehow, in all my baseball research, I had never come across Joe Lake, who pitched from 1908 to 1913, twirling for the Highlanders in 1908 and 1909. In his career, he also pitched for the St. Louis Browns and the Detroit Tigers. Lake pitched in 199 games in his career compiling a lifetime record of 62-90. It was 1908, his rookie season, when he went 9-22. He bounced back in 1909 and had a winning season for New York, going 14-11, before moving on to St. Louis. Those 14 wins were the most he would ever win in one season.
Russ Ford (1912) - No relation to Whitey Ford, Russ Ford burst on the scene in New York in 1910 going 26-6 in his rookie season. The next season, 1911, he went 22-11. It seemed the Yankees had a star on their hands, but it wasn't to last. In 1912, he went 13-21. In 1913, he almost lost 20 again, going 13-18 to end his career with the Yankees (they were the Yankees by 1913). Ford then pitched for Buffalo in the Federal League having a great season in 1914 going 21-6, but it didn't last. By 1915, his career as a big leaguer was over.
Sad Sam Jones (1925) - On September 4, 1925, Sad Sam Jones pitched a no-hitter for the Yankees defeating the Philadelphia A's 2-0. He struck out no batters in the game and walked only one. Jones had a long big league career pitching from 1914 to 1935. In 1921, he won 23 games for the Boston Red Sox. In 1923, he won 21 games for the Yankees. In his career, Sam Jones won 229 games (against 217 losses). Of the pitchers on this list, he's the only one who ever pitched for a winning team in a World Series. He pitched in the World Series in 1916 and 1918 with the Red Sox and in 1922, 1923, and 1926 with the Yankees. In his career, he also pitched for the Cleveland Nats, the St. Louis Browns, the Washington Senators, and the Chicago White Sox. Jones' 20-loss season came in 1925 when he went 15-21.
Mel Stottlemyre (1966) - Mel Stottlemyre is the only lifetime Yankee on this list. He pitched for the Yankees from 1964 (he pitched in the '64 World Series) through 1974. Stottlemyre won 20 games three times amassing a lifetime record of 164-139. In 1966, a year the Yankees finished in last place, Stottlemyre went 12-20. He bounced back to have two of his two best seasons in 1968 (21-12) and 1969 (20-14). In 1972, he almost lost 20 again, going 14-18. Stottlemyre would eventually win World Series rings as a pitching coach for the New York Mets and the New York Yankees.
Dr. Paul Semendinger is a retired principal. He still plays baseball as a pitcher in two 35+ wood bat baseball leagues in New Jersey. Paul has authored numerous books including The Least Among Them and his newest 365.2: Going the Distance, A Runner's Journey. You can read Paul's other writings at www.drpaulsem.com and at www.startspreadingthenews.blog.
Cleaning Up
Bench ‘Em Or Play ‘Em? How Can Managers End Player Slumps?
By Dan Schlossberg
All teams slump. It happens to the best of them.
The Atlanta Braves seldom slumped last season, when they led the majors with 104 wins and tied a major-league record with 307 home runs.
But this year is a different story.
The team’s three best hitters — Ronald Acuna, Jr., Austin Riley, and Matt Olson — hit the skids simultaneously, maintaining April Fool’s Day for the entire first month.
Acuna, the unanimous National League MVP in 2023, hit .245 with just six extra-base hits through the end of April (28 games). Riley hit .226 with a half-dozen multi-hit games over the same span.
Those numbers were great compared to Olson’s. The Atlanta cleanup man resorted to cleaning up his own mess: homerless since April 7 — a span of 26 games — he had just four extra-base hits and a .163 batting average (25-for-92) during that timeframe.
Olson, who led the majors last year with 54 home runs and 139 runs batted in, has never suffered through such a drought.
Atlanta manager Brian Snitker, questioned before the game in New York last night, remained steadfast in his conviction that the lineup should never change.
More than any manager in the majors, Snitker sticks with his regulars — even when other pilots might give slumping sluggers a rest or at least shake up the batting order.
The Braves happen have a former batting champion, Yuli Gurriel, playing first base for their Triple-A team in Gwinnett. But Snitker, asked whether the Braves might promote the Cuban first baseman, deferred the question.
“You’ll have to ask Alex,” he said, leaving the decision to Atlanta president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos.
It was Anthopoulos who let free agency claim Freddie Freeman, who had spent 12 years with the Braves and was the Face of the Franchise. Olson arrived via trade and quickly signed an eight-year, $168 million extension. It is now in its third year.
Acuna has a long-term deal too. He’s in the sixth season of an eight-year, $100 million extension. And Riley’s 10-year, $212 million deal, now in its second season, is the biggest ever bestowed by the Braves.
With the heart of the lineup not giving heart attacks to opposing pitchers, the Braves suffered through a miserable road trip capped by a three-game sweep at the hands of the Dodgers in Los Angeles. As a result, the Braves were knocked off their first-place perch by the persistent Philadelphia Phillies.
Even former NL Rookie of the Year Michael Harris II was guilty of ineptitude at the plate, with zero hits in 25 at-bats before the Mets series opened Friday night. But he too played without a break.
In fact, only Ozzie Albies and Marcell Ozuna were keeping Atlanta afloat, although Albies had not homered since March 31 in Philadelphia before he hit one of three Atlanta homers (after Acuna but before Olson) against Jose Quintana in the third inning.
Ozuna, one of three Braves with 40 homers last year, was leading the majors with 12 home runs and 38 runs batted in before this weekend.
In the meantime, such bench players as Adam Duvall and Luke Williams aren’t getting enough playing time (Duvall forms a right-left platoon in left field with Jarred Kelenic).
Olson at least is the personification of durability: he has played 493 consecutive regular-season games, the longest active streak in the majors.
Braves fans just wish he would hit — at least a little.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron and 40 other baseball books. He writes for forbes.com, Sports Collectors Digest, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Memories & Dreams, MLB Report, and many other outlets. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia: Snitker Savors Manhattan Visit
Braves manager Brian Snitker is enjoying his trip to New York. The team had an off-day in Manhattan Thursday, allowing Snitker to see the Neil Diamond show on Broadway and visit with his son Troy, batting coach for the Houston Astros . . .
Troy was in town for a series against the Yankees in the Bronx . . .
The elder Snitker, whose family is traveling with him, is a fan of Broadway who said seeing a matinee gives him a much-needed, two-hour escape from the daily stress of baseball . . .
At 68, Snitker is the oldest manager in the National League and second oldest in the majors, trailing only Ron Washington, the 72-year-old skipper of the Los Angeles Angels who once coached third for the Braves under Snitker . . .
Under Snitker, who replaced Fredi Gonzalez, Atlanta has won six straight division crowns — the longest active streak in the majors — but is far from toppling its own record of 14 in a row.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.