Scoreless appearances by a reliver to start a career
Posted by Andy on August 20, 2007
At the trade deadline, the Yankees did not pick up a reliever, as many expected. Instead, they shortly thereafter called up Joba Chamberlain, who has been lights out since joining the team. Through yesterday, in his first five major league appearances, he's pitched 7 innings, with 2 hits, 2 walks, 11 strikeouts, and no runs. He's also been hitting triple digits on the radar gun. It should make things interesting when it comes time to negotiate a new contract for Mariano Rivera this off-season.
Anyway it got me to thinking: is such a start for a reliever all that impressive? The answer, at least from a statistical point of view, is no.
Using the PI Streak Finder, here are the leaders since the year 2000 for most consecutive relief appearances to start a career without allowing a run (earned or unearned):
StreakStart Streak End Games W L GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA HBP WP BK Teams +-----------------+-----------+-----------+-----+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Matt Smith 2006-04-14 2006-09-22 22 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 18.2 7 0 0 10 17 0 0.00 0 0 0 NYY-PHI Doug Slaten 2006-09-04 2007-04-21 18 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 11.2 7 0 0 3 9 0 0.00 0 0 0 ARI Joe Smith 2007-04-01 2007-05-05 17 1 0 0 0 0 7 0 15.1 8 0 0 7 18 0 0.00 1 1 0 NYM Ricardo Rincon 2000-04-03 2000-05-10 14 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 6 0 0 2 9 0 0.00 1 0 0 CLE Mark Lowe 2006-07-07 2006-08-14 13 1 0 0 0 0 3 0 17.2 8 0 0 7 20 0 0.00 1 1 0 SEA Aaron Heilman 2003-08-31 2005-06-19 13 1 0 0 0 0 6 0 18 13 0 0 3 19 0 0.00 0 0 0 NYM Bret Prinz 2001-04-22 2001-05-27 13 1 0 0 0 0 10 4 12.1 5 0 0 4 8 0 0.00 0 0 0 ARI Jonathan Sanchez 2006-05-28 2006-06-30 12 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 11.1 3 0 0 7 7 0 0.00 1 0 0 SFG Alex Herrera 2002-09-13 2003-07-12 12 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 11 5 0 0 5 9 0 0.00 0 1 0 CLE Jeremy Fikac 2001-08-16 2001-09-08 12 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 15.1 4 0 0 2 13 0 0.00 1 0 0 SDP Octavio Dotel 2000-04-23 2000-08-04 12 1 0 0 0 0 11 5 13 4 0 0 5 20 0 0.00 0 0 0 HOU Kevin Cameron 2007-04-05 2007-05-11 11 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 16.1 6 0 0 15 15 0 0.00 0 2 0 SDP Tyler Johnson 2005-09-06 2006-05-20 11 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 5.1 3 0 0 4 7 0 0.00 0 0 0 STL Ramon Ramirez 2006-04-14 2006-05-13 11 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 15.1 6 0 0 2 20 0 0.00 0 0 0 COL Mike Gallo 2003-07-02 2003-07-27 11 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 8.2 4 0 0 5 4 0 0.00 0 0 0 HOU Kirk Saarloos 2003-05-21 2003-06-12 10 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 10.2 6 0 0 3 11 0 0.00 0 0 0 HOU Rolando Arrojo 2001-04-06 2001-05-05 10 1 0 0 0 0 8 4 16.1 9 0 0 5 14 0 0.00 0 1 0 BOS Todd Van Poppel 2000-05-12 2000-06-03 10 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 13.1 9 0 0 7 14 0 0.00 0 0 0 CHC Matt Herges 2000-04-05 2000-04-29 10 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 15 5 0 0 3 11 0 0.00 2 0 0 LAD
I am totally amazed that Matt Smith's streak last year escaped me. I remember when he was traded from the Yankees to the Phillies (as part of the deal for Bobby Abreu and the late Cory Lidle), but I had no idea about the streak. Smith pitched terribly with the Phillies earlier this year (4 hits and 11 walks in 4 innings!) although he's doing well at Ottawa this year and should make it back to the bigs.
Anyway, with just 5 scoreless appearances, Chamberlain has a long way to go before making this particular leaderboard. But based on his numbers so far, mainly his minor league numbers, he's probably going to have a heck of a good career.
August 20th, 2007 at 11:42 am
I was looking up something similar just yesterday, and found that Victor Cruz started his career with 21.1 scoreless innings (over 13 games) to start his career. That's the best start (innings-wise) that I've found so far.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/gl.cgi?t=p&n1=cruzvi01&year=1978#1:13:sum
August 20th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Good point, statboy. I actually did that search too and I can confirm that you are correct that Cruz is the leader since 1957.
August 20th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Thanks for the confirmation, Andy. I'm not subscribed to the Play Index (yet), so it was next-to-impossible for me to confirm that Cruz was the leader.
August 21st, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Kevin Cameron pitched over 16 scoreless innings to start his career this year for the Padres.