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Maddux Redux
2004-07-28 13:21
by Mike Carminati

As Greg Maddux flies under the radar in his quest for 300 wins, hopefully it will revive the discussions from five to ten years ago as to who is the greatest pitcher of the current era, Maddux or Clemens. I personally prefer Clemens but am open to the debate. The Rocket's foray into New York and ensuing media circuses (circi?) from his pursuit of 300 as well as the FOX-favorite beaning of/bat-tossing at Mike Piazza, have helped to cement Clemens as the favorite. It seems that Maddux has lagged behind Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez in the court of public opinion over the last few years.

Maddux was once the thinking fan's favorite pitcher and the darling of all the TV analysts and baseball cognoscenti. Even though he has had slow starts over the last few years his only sub-par season, for him, was last year: 3.96 ERA, only 5% better than the park-adjusted league average, and a 16-11 record. With the Yankees Clemens registered one season with an ERA worse than average (1999-3% worse) and one about average (1% better in 2002). Maddux actually leads Clemens in career adjusted ERA: 143 to 140. I guess it's easy to overlook a pitcher who hasn't won twenty games in eleven seasons.

One thing that intrigues me about Maddux's career are the consistently low walk totals and the resulting low WHIPs. I was surprised when I looked it up that Maddux is just 35th in career WHIP (1.13), just ahead of some dude named Cy Young. Here are the top 20 in career WHIP (to three decimal places, min. 1000 IP):

NameWHIP
Addie Joss0.968
Ed Walsh1.000
Pedro Martinez1.013
John Ward1.044
Christy Mathewson1.059
Walter Johnson1.061
Mordecai Brown1.066
Charlie Sweeney1.067
Reb Russell1.080
Joe Wood1.085
Jim Devlin1.086
Jack Pfiester1.089
George Bradley1.089
Babe Adams1.092
Tommy Bond1.093
Juan Marichal1.101
Rube Waddell1.102
Dick Hall1.102
Larry Corcoran1.105
Deacon Phillippe1.105
Sandy Koufax1.106
Fred Glade1.107
Ed Morris1.108
Will White1.111
Chief Bender1.113

Or in other words, Pedro Martinez, Sandy Koufax, and a bunch of old guys. If you want a complete list, B-R.com has it here (based on walks plus hits per nine inning).

I didn't feel that this list was in actuality representative of the quality of the pitchers involved, but rather was a result of the era in which a pitcher pitched. Therefore, I set about to study a version of WHIP that was adjusted per league and era. I calculated the pitcher's actual walks and hits totals and then the expected walks/hits total based on the league's average WHIP for that season multiplied by the pitcher's innings. If one sums that across a pitcher's career, a more complete picture of how much better than average of the course of his career the pitcher actually was (at least at allowing walks and hits).

Maddux improves to ninth. Here are the top 25 (ranked by career walks and hits below expected, "BB+H B Exp"; Note: data through 2003, min. 1000 IP):

NameIPWHIPBB+H B ExpPer IPWLPCT
Cy Young7354.71.131756.380.239511316.618
Walter Johnson5914.71.061542.700.261417279.599
Kid Nichols5056.31.221137.010.225361208.634
Pete Alexander5190.01.121039.210.200373208.642
Don Sutton5282.31.14985.560.187324256.559
Tom Seaver4782.71.12979.280.205311205.603
Christy Mathewson4780.71.06969.410.203373188.665
Roger Clemens4278.71.18969.010.226310160.660
Greg Maddux3968.71.12920.230.232289163.639
Robin Roberts4688.71.17885.270.189286245.539
Warren Spahn5243.71.19875.040.167363245.597
Lefty Grove3940.71.28865.300.220300141.680
Carl Hubbell3590.31.17842.760.235253154.622
Pedro Martinez2079.01.01819.760.39416667.712
Tim Keefe5047.71.12816.400.162342225.603
Fergie Jenkins4500.71.14809.930.180284226.557
Mike Mussina2668.71.16733.230.275199110.644
Bert Blyleven4970.01.20723.700.146287250.534
Gaylord Perry5350.31.18720.500.135314265.542
Randy Johnson3122.31.18699.930.224230114.669
Juan Marichal3507.31.10670.540.191243142.631
Dennis Eckersley3285.71.16665.450.203197171.535
Curt Schilling2586.01.12665.160.257163117.582
John Clarkson4536.31.21654.400.144328178.648
Charley Radbourn4535.31.15652.040.144309195.613

That's a much better group of pitchers. However, the ceding is affected by how many innings a pitcher threw, since the totals are cumulative. Of course, ye olde-tyme pitchers threw many more innings per year. So I broke down the data based walks and hits below expectation per inning. Here are the results:

NameIPWHIPBB+H B ExpPer IPWLPCT
Pedro Martinez2079.01.01819.760.39416667.712
Mike Mussina2668.71.16733.230.275199110.644
Walter Johnson5914.71.061542.700.261417279.599
Curt Schilling2586.01.12665.160.257163117.582
Cy Young7354.71.131756.380.239511316.618
Bret Saberhagen2562.71.14608.240.237167117.588
Carl Hubbell3590.31.17842.760.235253154.622
Tiny Bonham1551.01.15360.600.23210372.589
Greg Maddux3968.71.12920.230.232289163.639
Roger Clemens4278.71.18969.010.226310160.660
Kid Nichols5056.31.221137.010.225361208.634
Randy Johnson3122.31.18699.930.224230114.669
Addie Joss2327.00.97519.530.22316097.623
Lefty Grove3940.71.28865.300.220300141.680
Ed Walsh2964.31.00647.350.218195126.607
Spud Chandler1485.01.21323.740.21810943.717
Dick Hall1259.71.10273.260.2179375.554
Babe Adams2995.31.09633.060.211194140.581
Tom Seaver4782.71.12979.280.205311205.603
Tim Hudson1052.01.21214.930.2048033.708
Hoyt Wilhelm2254.31.12457.210.203143122.540
Christy Mathewson4780.71.06969.410.203373188.665
Dennis Eckersley3285.71.16665.450.203197171.535
Harry Brecheen1907.71.19385.470.20213392.591
Pete Alexander5190.01.121039.210.200373208.642

Maddux is in a virtual tie for eighth all-time (with the legendary Tiny Bonham). He is, however, ahead of Clemens, but it is dang close. Of course, there are a number of modern players near the top, but they may drop as they age. Pedro Martinez is ridiculously ahead of the pack. It will be interesting to see how he ages and what it will do to his stats (and also if he decides to ever toss Don Zimmer again).

By the way, for those of you who don't remember Tiny Bonham except as maybe a name Bart Simpson used to prank Moe's Tavern, Bonham was a Yankee pitcher who was highly successful during World War II. He was one of the first to use a forkball successfully, wasn't tiny at all (6'2" 215), had chronic back problems that hurt his career more than the troops returning to the baseball field, and died from complications from an appendectomy only two weeks after his last game while with the Pirates (Thanks to Baseball-Library.com for the details). He was also a two-time All-Star who finished with an ERA 20 points better than the park-adjusted league average.

By the way, here are the worst pitchers of all time based on total walks plus hits above expected:

NameIPWHIPBB+H B ExpPer IPWLPCT
Bobby Witt2465.01.57-392.66-0.159142157.475
Mike Torrez3044.01.45-310.22-0.102185160.536
Jimmy Ring2354.31.49-281.63-0.120118149.442
Chick Fraser3356.01.43-272.75-0.081175212.452
George Mullin3686.71.29-270.84-0.073228196.538
Jimmy Haynes1185.71.62-237.11-0.2006386.423
Johnny Klippstein1967.71.47-232.03-0.118101118.461
Bill Bailey1084.31.44-222.63-0.2053876.333
Jamey Wright1055.71.60-221.99-0.2105169.425
Bruce Ruffin1268.01.51-219.64-0.1736082.423


And per inning:

NameIPWHIPBB+H B ExpPer IPWLPCT
Jamey Wright1055.71.60-221.99-0.2105169.425
Bill Bailey1084.31.44-222.63-0.2053876.333
Jimmy Haynes1185.71.62-237.11-0.2006386.423
Jesse Jefferson1085.71.54-191.47-0.1763981.325
Randy Lerch1099.31.51-193.77-0.1766064.484
Bruce Ruffin1268.01.51-219.64-0.1736082.423
Bill James1179.71.43-190.27-0.1616571.478
Bobby Witt2465.01.57-392.66-0.159142157.475
Happy Townsend1137.71.38-179.17-0.1573582.299
Turk Lown1032.01.52-160.72-0.1565561.474

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