More Fun With the Pitcher's Database

Wednesday, June 10 2009 @ 08:05 AM EDT

Contributed by: Magpie

While I had the spreadsheet open, I thought I'd check Jays starts on short rest. This data goes all the way back to the beginning.

No Blue Jay has ever started a game with 0 days rest, but 9 times a Toronto pitcher has started with just 1 Day of Rest. Which sounds a little alarming, but in each case what had happened is the pitcher made a relief appearance, didn't pitch the next day, and started the next day. For example, David Wells threw 5 pitches out of the bullpen on May 27 1990. He then started (and won) the game on May 29. Other pitchers who did the same thing in Toronto were Dennis Lamp (twice, in 1984 and 1986), Jeff Musselman (1987), Jack Kucek (1980), Jason Kershner (2004), Jerry Garvin (1981) and John Cerutti (1986).

The same story applies, for the most part, on the 62 occasions a Toronto pitcher started a game with just 2 days rest - in almost every occasion it was two days rest after a relief appearance. But there are a few exceptions. Luis Leal, for example, was the starter on Saturday July 24 1983 (he went 3.1); Bobby Cox sent Leal back out to start Tuesday July 27. John Gibbons brought Josh Towers back on 2 Days Rest at the end of the 2004 season. Jim Clancy actually started 4 games on just 2 Days Rest after his previous start (twice for Cox, once each for Mattick and Williams.)

But I was particularly interested in who made the most starts on 3 Days Rest. The Blue Jays were one of the last teams to use a four man rotation - Bobby Cox only started to transition to a five man rotation in 1983. By my count, it's been done 325 times by a Toronto pitcher, and almost a quarter of those starts came in one season, Bobby Cox's first year in Toronto. Jays pitchers made 79 starts on 3 Days Rest in 1982, far and away the most in team history. The next highest figure comes from the year preceding, when Bobby Mattick used starters on short rest 22 times ( in a strike-shortened season.)

Here are the year-by-year totals:

1977 - 21
1978 - 21
1979 - 7
1980 - 19
1981 - 22
1982 - 79
1983 - 21
1984 - 20
1985 - 15
1986 - 14
1987 - 21
1988 - 5
1989 - 6
1990 - 0
1991 - 11
1992 - 4
1993 - 1
1994 - 2
1995 - 2
1996 - 3
1997 - 1
1998 - 1
1999 - 4
2000 - 1
2001 - 3
2002 - 2
2003 - 7
2004 - 1
2005 - 3
2006 - 2
2007 - 1
2008 - 5

As you can see, the start on short rest has become very rare indeed around these parts since 1987. Cito Gaston was the last man to crack double digits, in 1991 - and even that includes four fill-in starts by relievers (Acker twice, Fraser, and Timlin), two Candiotti starts, and a brief Guzman tune-up on the final day of the year. The year before, Gaston didn't use anyone on short rest - that was 1990, when Gaston's starters also set a new major league record for fewest complete games in a season (it's been broken since then, by practically everybody. Cito was ahead of his time!)

Here are the guys who did it at least five times and the managers they were working for at the time (and it's certain that a few of these appearances did come after a relief outing, especially in the case of John Cerutti.) It should come as no surprise to anyone that the four men at the top of the list were the four members of Bobby Cox's 1982 rotation.

Jim Clancy       58 (Hartsfield-5, Mattick-12, Cox-34, Williams-7)
Dave Stieb       41 (Mattick-8, Cox-26, Williams-3, Gaston-3, Johnson-1)
Luis Leal        35 (Mattick-4, Cox-31)
Jim Gott         17 (Cox)
John Cerutti     16 (Williams-14, Gaston-2)
Jesse Jefferson  14 (Hartsfield-11, Mattick-3)
Doyle Alexander  14 (Cox 13, Williams-1)
Dave Lemanczyk   12 (Hartsfield 11, Mattick-1)
Jerry Garvin     10 (Hartsfield-8, Cox-2)
Jimmy Key         9 (Cox-2, Williams-6, Tenace-1)
Roy Halladay      6 (Tosca-1, Gibbons-4, Gaston-1)
Juan Berenguer    5 (Mattick)
Mark Bomback      5 (Mattick-1, Cox-4)
Juan Guzman       5 (Gaston-4, Tenace-1)
Todd Stottlemyre  5 (Williams-2, Gaston-2, Tenace-1)

Here's a look at the various managerial patterns over the years:

MGR               1 day   2 days  3 days  4 days  5 days  Long Rest   TOTAL
Roy Hartsfield      0        8      49      212     104     111        484
Bobby Mattick       2       12      41      132      42      39        268
Bobby Cox           2       15     135      359      64      73        648
Jimy Williams       3       12      40      319      89      60        523
Cito Gaston         1        6      30      797     364     211       1409
Gene Tenace         0        0       4       24       2       3         33
Mel Queen           0        0       0        5       0       0          5
Tim Johnson         0        0       1       88      49      24        162
Jim Fregosi         0        1       5      185      91      42        324
Buck Martinez       0        3       3      103      72      31        212
Cookie Rojas        0        0       0        0       3       0          3
Carlos Tosca        1        1      10      231      79      57        379
John Gibbons        0        4       7      328     177      96        612

Or, in percentage terms:

MGR               1 day   2 days  3 days    4 days    5 days   Long Rest   
Hartsfield         0.0%    1.7%    10.1%     43.8%     21.5%    22.9%
Mattick            0.7%    4.5%    15.3%     49.3%     15.7%    14.6%
Cox                0.3%    2.3%    20.8%     55.4%      9.9%    11.3%
Williams           0.6%    2.3%     7.6%     61.0%     17.0%    11.5%
Gaston             0.1%    0.4%     2.1%     56.6%     25.8%    15.0%
Tenace             0.0%    0.0%    12.1%     72.7%      6.1%     9.1%
Queen              0.0%    0.0%     0.0%    100.0%      0.0%     0.0%
Johnson            0.0%    0.0%     0.6%     54.3%     30.2%    14.8%
Fregosi            0.0%    0.3%     1.5%     57.1%     28.1%    13.0%
Martinez           0.0%    1.4%     1.4%     48.6%     34.0%    14.6%
Rojas              0.0%    0.0%     0.0%      0.0%    100.0%     0.0%
Tosca              0.3%    0.3%     2.6%     60.9%     20.8%    15.0%
Gibbons            0.0%    0.7%     1.1%     53.6%     28.9%    15.7%

I should note that these totals may not exactly match some of the totals given in various official sources. There are two likely reasons - me making very small minor addition errors, and an attempt on my part to credit the game to the guy who was actually in the dugout that day. I tried to do likewise when I was looking at Pitch Counts Through The Years.

And Bauxite vw_fan17 was wondering if there were any surprising win-loss records to go with this, which caused me to wonder why I never did that ion the first place. Here's how everyone who started on 3 days rest at least twice performed:

                                                                                      Avg
Pitcher     ST    W    L    IP       H    R     ER   BB     SO   HR    ERA      BF    GmSc
                                                            
Clancy      58   21   21   358     374   177   164   133   192   38    4.12    1577    49.6
Stieb       41   11   17   284     271   135   122    89   132   26    3.87    1186    51.9
Leal        35   14   12   234     230   103    95    80   100   21    3.65     988    51.4
Gott        17    6    8    98.2    89    54    47    42    51   11    4.29     422    49.2
Cerutti     14    8    2    85.1    93    49    37    31    38   18    3.90     376    54.8
Jefferson   14    6    5   105     107    55    47    47    52   12    4.03     458    49.4
Alexander   14    5    5    97.2    95    50    48    28    45    8    4.42     405    50.6
Lemanczyk   12    7    4    91.1    90    42    40    31    31   11    3.94     386    51.1
Garvin      10    2    5    55.1    67    39    35    19    33    9    5.69     251    43.0
Key          9    4    2    56      62    26    24    16    23    3    3.86     237    48.6
Halladay     6    4    2    42      38    16    13     1    27    5    2.79     167    59.0
Guzman       5    2    2    31      32    14    13     9    13    0    3.77     128    50.6
Bomback      5    1    3    30.1    41    19    18    16    13    3    5.34     145    40.4
Berenguer    5    1    3    27.1    25    20    17    17    10    5    5.60     126    44.2
Stottlemyre  5    0    2    29.1    28    14    14    12    17    4    4.30     126    49.4
Walker       4    1    0    20.2    23    11    11     4    11    6    4.79      85    46.8
Escobar      4    1    3    17      22    11    11     5     7    1    5.82      77    42.8
Underwood    4    0    3    26.1    33    22    19    13    26    8    6.49     121    41.0
Burnett      3    3    0    19.1    13     5     4    10    18    1    1.85      84    62.0
Acker        3    2    0    16      18    14    12     9     7    4    6.75      72    38.0
Flanagan     3    1    2    18.2    17     8     8     8    15    3    3.86      79    53.0
Kucek        3    0    2     9      17    15    13     5     2    1   13.00      49    28.7
Hentgen      2    2    0    15.1    12     3     2     2    14    1    1.17      60    69.0
Mirabella    2    1    0    15.2    16     4     3     3     4    1    1.72      63    58.0
Vuckovich    2    1    1    15      19     6     6     3    17    0    3.60      68    55.5
Loaiza       2    1    0    10      13     5     5     1     6    1    4.50      43    46.5
Candiotti    2    0    0    14      12     4     4     5     6    0    2.57      57    56.5
Leiter       2    0    1    11       9     7     7     8    11    1    5.73      50    47.0
Bush         2    0    1     9.2    11     7     5     1     2    3    4.66      42    43.0
Eichhorn     2    0    1     9      12     8     6     6     2    1    6.00      47    38.5
Lemongello   2    0    2     9.1    14    14    11     3     8    4   10.61      46    28.5
Moore        2    0    2     8.1     7     9     8     4     7    2    8.64      39    41.0
Lamp         2    0    1     7.1     7     7     5     1     4    1    6.14      31    44.5

As you can see, one or two pitchers have responded quite positively to working on short rest - Roy Halladay, obviously. Luis Leal and John Cerutti all pitched notably better on short rest as well (again, in Cerutti's case, this was generally coming after a relief appearance.) And it would have been interesting to see Pat Hentgen get a few more chances - he surely did well when asked.

The most significant failure here is Dave Stieb. Forget the W-L record (11-17) - that's yet another instance of Stieb's notorious Tough Luck rising up to bite him yet again. He posted a decent enough ERA (3.87) and actually pitched better than Clancy or Leal on short rest. It's simply that most of this came during that five year period when Stieb was clearly the very best pitcher in the AL. He was normally far, far better than this. Stieb was a very fine athlete, but by no means was he as big and strong as Jim Clancy or Roy Halladay. Pitching on short rest didn't really agree with him.

Those of you with living memories of how the 1985 ALCS unfolded would probably agree.

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