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The Anatomy of Every Start – 2009

Posted by Raphy on January 4, 2010

One of the projects that I've wanted to do since I started to work with the PI was to break down every starting pitcher's line and see how often pitchers with various innings pitched and runs allowed stats won their starts. The recent addition of the CSV option in the PI results has made it particularly easy to grab the information and import it into a spreadsheet. Therefore, the time has come to address the issue. I am going to present the info for the 2009 season and if there is enough interest (please let me know in the comments), future posts will contain information for a larger sampling of years. To do this, I simply used the PI pitching game finder and searched for all starts sorted by IP and (when I reached the results limit) just kept changing the IP requirements until I had a copy of all 4860 starts from 2009. Here is the information in couple of tables:

Total Starts: 4860

IP R Starts Team W Team L Pitcher W Pitcher L Pitcher ND
9 0 65 65 0 64 0 1
9 1 38 37 1 35 1 2
9 2 16 14 2 14 1 1
9 3 2 2 0 2 0 0
9 4 4 3 1 3 1 0
9 5 1 0 1 0 1 0
8.2 1 4 4 0 4 0 0
8.2 2 2 2 0 1 0 1
8.2 3 2 2 0 2 0 0
8.1 0 4 3 1 3 0 1
8.1 1 6 6 0 6 0 0
8.1 2 2 2 0 2 0 0
8.1 3 2 2 0 2 0 0
8 0 70 61 9 57 0 13
8 1 80 62 18 53 6 21
8 2 47 32 15 31 10 6
8 3 31 15 16 14 12 5
8 4 21 8 13 8 12 1
8 5 10 1 9 0 6 4
8 6 1 0 1 0 1 0
8 8 1 0 1 0 1 0
7.2 0 13 13 0 10 0 3
7.2 1 16 12 4 10 2 4
7.2 2 14 10 4 7 0 7
7.2 3 8 5 3 5 2 1
7.2 4 4 2 2 1 1 2
7.2 5 3 2 1 2 1 0
7.2 6 1 0 1 0 1 0
7.1 0 6 6 0 6 0 0
7.1 1 19 16 3 15 2 2
7.1 2 31 20 11 14 4 13
7.1 3 21 14 7 7 5 9
7.1 4 5 1 4 0 3 2
7.1 5 8 3 5 3 5 0
7.1 6 1 0 1 0 1 0
7 0 134 115 19 104 0 30
7 1 261 201 60 169 14 78
7 2 185 115 70 86 38 61
7 3 174 86 88 58 62 54
7 4 72 27 45 18 38 16
7 5 30 11 19 8 16 6
7 6 4 1 3 1 3 0
7 7 4 1 3 0 2 2
7 8 1 0 1 0 1 0
6.2 0 11 11 0 11 0 0
6.2 1 29 25 4 23 3 3
6.2 2 57 42 15 34 7 16
6.2 3 38 23 15 19 11 8
6.2 4 23 12 11 5 7 11
6.2 5 11 2 9 2 9 0
6.2 6 8 0 8 0 7 1
6.2 7 2 1 1 0 0 2
6.1 0 11 11 0 11 0 0
6.1 1 26 22 4 19 1 6
6.1 2 45 29 16 20 6 19
6.1 3 41 21 20 17 7 17
6.1 4 37 14 23 7 18 12
6.1 5 15 4 11 3 9 3
6.1 6 8 1 7 1 5 2
6.1 7 4 1 3 0 3 1
6 0 91 72 19 62 0 29
6 1 155 114 41 93 9 53
6 2 250 150 100 113 49 88
6 3 254 119 135 75 84 95
6 4 162 61 101 39 80 43
6 5 119 35 84 17 70 32
6 6 32 10 22 5 21 6
6 7 14 1 13 0 13 1
6 8 6 1 5 0 5 1
5.2 0 4 4 0 3 0 1
5.2 1 26 21 5 17 1 8
5.2 2 30 18 12 14 3 13
5.2 3 39 26 13 15 8 16
5.2 4 40 19 21 12 18 10
5.2 5 44 10 34 4 29 11
5.2 6 18 2 16 1 16 1
5.2 7 10 1 9 1 8 1
5.2 8 5 0 5 0 5 0
5.2 9 2 0 2 0 2 0
5.1 0 5 3 2 2 0 3
5.1 1 18 15 3 11 0 7
5.1 2 31 20 11 13 5 13
5.1 3 34 22 12 14 4 16
5.1 4 45 13 32 9 24 12
5.1 5 43 7 36 2 29 12
5.1 6 20 3 17 0 15 5
5.1 7 10 3 7 0 6 4
5.1 8 1 1 0 0 0 1
5.1 9 1 0 1 0 1 0
5.1 10 1 0 1 0 1 0
5 0 30 23 7 16 0 14
5 1 80 54 26 44 8 28
5 2 93 58 35 45 12 36
5 3 139 68 71 37 48 54
5 4 131 37 94 20 71 40
5 5 96 29 67 15 58 23
5 6 67 8 59 6 52 9
5 7 35 6 29 3 26 6
5 8 10 2 8 0 7 3
5 9 4 0 4 0 4 0
4.2 1 1 1 0 0 0 1
4.2 2 8 8 0 0 0 8
4.2 3 7 4 3 0 1 6
4.2 4 18 3 15 0 12 6
4.2 5 32 7 25 0 22 10
4.2 6 16 2 14 0 14 2
4.2 7 18 2 16 0 15 3
4.2 8 6 0 6 0 5 1
4.2 9 2 0 2 0 2 0
4.1 0 3 3 0 0 0 3
4.1 1 2 2 0 0 0 2
4.1 2 4 2 2 0 2 2
4.1 3 13 7 6 0 4 9
4.1 4 21 6 15 0 11 10
4.1 5 26 6 20 1 18 7
4.1 6 26 2 24 0 20 6
4.1 7 15 1 14 0 13 2
4.1 8 10 1 9 0 9 1
4.1 9 3 0 3 0 3 0
4.1 10 1 0 1 0 1 0
4.1 11 1 0 1 0 1 0
4 0 3 2 1 0 0 3
4 1 10 5 5 0 1 9
4 2 12 4 8 0 2 10
4 3 24 8 16 0 7 17
4 4 27 7 20 0 16 11
4 5 34 6 28 0 27 7
4 6 33 4 29 0 27 6
4 7 27 4 23 0 23 4
4 8 9 0 9 0 9 0
4 9 4 0 4 0 4 0
4 10 3 0 3 0 3 0
3.2 2 3 1 2 0 1 2
3.2 3 9 4 5 0 1 8
3.2 4 10 1 9 0 8 2
3.2 5 16 3 13 0 11 5
3.2 6 11 3 8 0 7 4
3.2 7 19 1 18 0 17 2
3.2 8 14 1 13 0 13 1
3.2 9 3 0 3 0 3 0
3.1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1
3.1 2 6 3 3 0 2 4
3.1 3 4 1 3 0 2 2
3.1 4 9 5 4 0 2 7
3.1 5 13 2 11 0 7 6
3.1 6 7 0 7 0 6 1
3.1 7 11 2 9 0 9 2
3.1 8 12 2 10 0 10 2
3.1 9 6 1 5 0 5 1
3.1 10 1 0 1 0 1 0
3 0 6 2 4 0 0 6
3 1 11 6 5 0 2 9
3 2 7 4 3 0 2 5
3 3 12 1 11 0 8 4
3 4 11 3 8 0 8 3
3 5 25 5 20 0 17 8
3 6 19 4 15 0 14 5
3 7 10 0 10 0 10 0
3 8 8 1 7 0 6 2
3 9 2 0 2 0 2 0
3 10 1 0 1 0 1 0
2.2 3 4 1 3 0 3 1
2.2 4 7 1 6 0 5 2
2.2 5 6 1 5 0 5 1
2.2 6 4 1 3 0 2 2
2.2 7 6 0 6 0 5 1
2.2 8 3 0 3 0 3 0
2.2 9 3 0 3 0 3 0
2.2 11 1 1 0 0 0 1
2.1 2 2 0 2 0 2 0
2.1 3 4 2 2 0 1 3
2.1 4 4 2 2 0 1 3
2.1 5 8 1 7 0 7 1
2.1 6 6 2 4 0 3 3
2.1 7 9 0 9 0 9 0
2.1 8 3 0 3 0 3 0
2.1 9 3 0 3 0 3 0
2 0 5 4 1 0 0 5
2 1 5 1 4 0 2 3
2 2 5 2 3 0 1 4
2 3 5 2 3 0 3 2
2 4 2 0 2 0 2 0
2 5 3 1 2 0 2 1
2 6 3 0 3 0 3 0
2 7 5 1 4 0 4 1
2 8 5 0 5 0 5 0
2 9 1 0 1 0 1 0
1.2 0 3 3 0 0 0 3
1.2 1 2 2 0 0 0 2
1.2 3 2 1 1 0 1 1
1.2 4 1 0 1 0 0 1
1.2 5 2 0 2 0 2 0
1.2 6 8 1 7 0 6 2
1.2 7 3 1 2 0 1 2
1.2 8 2 0 2 0 2 0
1.1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1
1.1 2 1 0 1 0 1 0
1.1 3 4 1 3 0 2 2
1.1 4 1 0 1 0 1 0
1.1 5 4 2 2 0 2 2
1.1 6 5 0 5 0 5 0
1.1 7 1 0 1 0 1 0
1.1 8 2 0 2 0 2 0
1 0 4 2 2 0 0 4
1 1 2 1 1 0 0 2
1 2 1 0 1 0 1 0
1 4 3 0 3 0 3 0
1 5 2 0 2 0 1 1
1 6 4 0 4 0 4 0
1 7 3 0 3 0 3 0
1 8 2 0 2 0 2 0
1 9 2 0 2 0 2 0
1 10 1 0 1 0 1 0
0.2 0 1 1 0 0 0 1
0.2 3 1 0 1 0 1 0
0.2 5 3 1 2 0 2 1
0.2 6 3 0 3 0 3 0
0.2 9 1 0 1 0 1 0
0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1
0 3 1 0 1 0 1 0

.
Although it is meant to be primarily a fun stat, I thought it also might be interesting to see how teams fared when their starters posted various game-scores. In this case I'm going to include all possible game scores, even those which did not occur this year:

Game Score Games Team W Team L Pitcher W Pitcher L Pitcher ND
-8 1 1 0 0 0 1
-7 0 0 0 0 0 0
-6 0 0 0 0 0 0
-5 0 0 0 0 0 0
-4 0 0 0 0 0 0
-3 1 0 1 0 1 0
-2 0 0 0 0 0 0
-1 1 0 1 0 1 0
0 1 0 1 0 1 0
1 1 0 1 0 1 0
2 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 6 0 6 0 6 0
4 4 0 4 0 4 0
5 5 0 5 0 5 0
6 7 0 7 0 7 0
7 9 0 9 0 8 1
8 11 0 11 0 11 0
9 11 1 10 0 10 1
10 20 3 17 0 17 3
11 12 2 10 0 9 3
12 13 0 13 0 13 0
13 10 0 10 0 9 1
14 17 1 16 0 15 2
15 18 3 15 0 15 3
16 29 1 28 0 27 2
17 18 1 17 0 16 2
18 35 1 34 0 34 1
19 22 1 21 0 19 3
20 22 4 18 0 13 9
21 33 5 28 1 25 7
22 29 6 23 0 20 9
23 48 7 41 0 37 11
24 56 10 46 3 40 13
25 34 9 25 1 22 11
26 53 6 47 1 41 11
27 49 5 44 0 42 7
28 44 10 34 4 32 8
29 52 14 38 4 34 14
30 56 9 47 0 38 18
31 56 14 42 3 35 18
32 66 7 59 4 53 9
33 41 9 32 2 29 10
34 75 18 57 5 48 22
35 67 16 51 5 43 19
36 67 18 49 7 43 17
37 93 31 62 12 51 30
38 61 27 34 15 30 16
39 81 33 48 14 31 36
40 96 33 63 11 46 39
41 86 34 52 13 41 32
42 77 32 45 18 31 28
43 98 41 57 25 40 33
44 115 48 67 27 48 40
45 92 40 52 26 34 32
46 105 45 60 21 37 47
47 96 44 52 27 36 33
48 110 54 56 27 45 38
49 99 50 49 28 27 44
50 103 50 53 35 38 30
51 106 62 44 42 34 30
52 111 54 57 38 36 37
53 118 65 53 48 30 40
54 108 57 51 39 28 41
55 132 83 49 58 25 49
56 112 66 46 46 21 45
57 106 60 46 49 22 35
58 110 72 38 55 23 32
59 113 72 41 52 17 44
60 107 70 37 51 14 42
61 97 59 38 45 21 31
62 83 54 29 42 11 30
63 88 57 31 46 12 30
64 108 76 32 61 13 34
65 101 70 31 62 12 27
66 67 49 18 40 3 24
67 86 64 22 57 8 21
68 69 54 15 48 4 17
69 73 63 10 53 3 17
70 76 58 18 52 4 20
71 48 40 8 31 1 16
72 58 50 8 46 2 10
73 47 41 6 34 3 10
74 52 46 6 45 1 6
75 31 25 6 23 2 6
76 34 32 2 29 1 4
77 29 23 6 19 1 9
78 19 18 1 16 0 3
79 24 20 4 18 2 4
80 22 21 1 19 0 3
81 14 14 0 14 0 0
82 17 15 2 15 0 2
83 19 19 0 17 0 2
84 11 10 1 10 0 1
85 16 13 3 13 1 2
86 8 7 1 7 0 1
87 6 6 0 6 0 0
88 9 8 1 8 0 1
89 1 1 0 1 0 0
90 3 3 0 3 0 0
91 4 4 0 4 0 0
92 2 2 0 2 0 0
93 2 2 0 2 0 0
94 0 0 0 0 0 0
95 0 0 0 0 0 0
96 0 0 0 0 0 0
97 0 0 0 0 0 0
98 1 1 0 1 0 0

.
Winning percentages were not included in the above tables  because the events with few occurrences make them look silly. Even frequently occurring events may not happen often enough in one season to make them significant. (An example of this is that in 2009 teams whose starters allowed 3 runs in 5.2 inning went 26-13, while those with starters who went 7 and allowed 3 were only 86-88.)  If we examine further seasons we may be able to reach significant numbers (how many would that be?). However,  we can't widen our net too far because the different levels of run scoring of different eras will obviously affect the percentages significantly. Advice and ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Related posts:

    The Anatomy of Every Start – 2010
    Bloops: The Anatomy of a Baseball Broadcast
    Shutouts in 2009
    Shutouts in 2009
    All the Hits of 2009

This entry was posted on Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 6:17 am and is filed under Game Finders, Power Users, Stats. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

9 Responses to “The Anatomy of Every Start – 2009”

  1. Link Dump: Vazquez, Pujols, Montero, Draft WAR | River Avenue Blues Says:
    January 4th, 2010 at 3:31 pm

    [...] How pitchers and teams fared in starts of X innings [...]

  2. eorns Says:
    January 4th, 2010 at 3:52 pm

    Wow, this is great stuff! I noticed that there a pitcher win for the 4.1IP/5R combo. At first I thought it was an error, but figured out it was a shortened game this past May 16 where Andrew Carpenter got the (really lucky) win despite allowing 5 runs in only 4.1 innings. There have actually been only 8 pitchers that have gotten a win while pitching fewer than 5 innings, all since 1978. Was there a rule change around that time?

    Player
    Date ▴
    Tm
    Opp
    Rslt
    App,Dec
    IP
    R

    Wilbur Wood
    1978-05-12
    CHW
    MIL
    W 4-3
    GS-5 ,W
    4.1
    3

    Bob Forsch
    1985-08-24
    STL
    ATL
    W 7-0
    GS-4 ,W
    4.0
    0

    Mike Griffin
    1987-07-20
    BAL
    CHW
    W 4-1
    GS-5 ,W
    4.0
    1

    Richie Lewis
    1992-07-31 (2)
    BAL
    BOS
    W 4-3
    GS-5 ,W
    4.1
    3

    Larry Luebbers
    1999-10-03
    STL
    CHC
    W 9-5
    GS-4 ,W
    4.0
    5

    C.C. Sabathia
    2001-06-01
    CLE
    NYY
    W 7-4
    GS-4 ,W
    4.0
    4

    Chris Michalak
    2006-09-22
    CIN
    CHC
    W 4-2
    GS-5 ,W
    4.1
    2

    Andrew Carpenter
    2009-05-16 (2)
    PHI
    WSN
    W 7-5
    GS-5 ,W
    4.1
    5

    Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool UsedGenerated 1/4/2010.

  3. eorns Says:
    January 4th, 2010 at 3:54 pm

    Sorry...forgot tables don't work in comments. Here's the link.

  4. eorns Says:
    January 4th, 2010 at 3:57 pm

    0 for 2. Wish we could preview comments! Here's the link.

  5. damthesehigheels Says:
    January 4th, 2010 at 4:53 pm

    This is great!

    I love that teams have a 100% winning percentage if their starting pitcher works 2 and 2/3 innings and gives up 11 runs!

  6. Queens Qrew Says:
    January 4th, 2010 at 7:19 pm

    Nice work.

    I'm surprised that teams only go 119-135 with a bare minimum quality start. Either my perception is wrong, or 2009 had some random fluctuations.

  7. DoubleDiamond Says:
    January 4th, 2010 at 8:32 pm

    Regarding the Andrew Carpenter game on May 16 - he was pulled in the bottom of the 5th, when it was not yet readily apparent that the rain was bad enough to get the game called. Clay Condrey came in to finish the inning. At first, Condrey was given the win, but this was later changed to a save, with Carpenter getting the victory. I recall that within the next couple of days, I read somewhere that the rule that allowed Carpenter to get the win was a new one, just implemented this year, but based on the others that have been listed here, maybe it's not so new.

    I checked to see if any of the ones that Eorns listed occurred early in the 1995 season. I remember that there was some talk that year of requiring a starter to go only three innings to get a win as major league baseball eased back after a late start to the season and an abbreviated spring training at the end of the strike. But I don't recall if this was ever done (although teams had expanded rosters for a few weeks), and none of the ones listed here are from that time period.

    I don't know if there's a minimum for spring training games, but I do often notice that a starter who has gone less than five full innings is the winner.

  8. Raphy Says:
    January 4th, 2010 at 9:08 pm

    eorns Says:
    January 4th, 2010 at 3:52 pm e

    "... There have actually been only 8 pitchers that have gotten a win while pitching fewer than 5 innings, all since 1978. Was there a rule change around that time?"

    None that I know of.

    The rule that allows a starter to earn a win with less than 5 IP is rule 10.17(b) which states:
    "If the pitcher whose team assumes a lead while such pitcher is in the game, or during the inning on offense in which such pitcher is removed from the game, and does not relinquish such lead, is a starting pitcher who has not completed
    (1) five innings of a game that lasts six or more innings on defense, or
    (2) four innings of a game that lasts five innings on defense,
    then the official scorer shall credit as the winning pitcher the relief pitcher, if there is only one relief pitcher, or the relief pitcher who, in the official scorer’s judgment was the most effective, if there is more than one relief pitcher."

    This means that in order for a pitcher to win such a game his team can not have pitcher more than 5.2 innings and he must have pitched at least 4 innings.

    Using the team pitching game finder we can find that from 1954-1977 a team won a game while using 2 or more pitchers in less than 6 innings on 9 occasions. In all of those games the starting pitcher pitched either less than 4 innings or at least 5. It wasn't a rule change, just a quirk of history.

  9. eorns Says:
    January 5th, 2010 at 10:58 am

    Another interesting note is that Andrew Carpenter's extremely rare kind of win occurred in his first and only big league start. Believe it or not, Richie Lewis's in 1992 also happened in his first start (actually his first career game!), though he did had 3 more in his career.

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