Baseball Toaster: Mike's Baseball Rants : You Can't Hide Your Lyon Eyes

You Can't Hide Your Lyon Eyes

2005-05-04 22:22

by Mike Carminati

So we are a month into the season and the major-league saves leader is…

Mariano Rivera? Nope, Rivera may be a future Hall-of-Famer but his three saves put him in 26th place in the majors.

Eric Gagne? He's yet to even pitch.

John Smoltz? He's a born-again starter.

Your major-league save leader is Red Sox castoff Brandon Lyon with 11. He currently projects to 66, nine more than Bobby Thigpen's single-season record.

Lyon did get a short trial, 9 saves, as closer in Boston's desperate pre-Keith Foulke days. I don't know what to make of his stat line yet far in 2005. It's schizophrenic (and so is it). There's the good: he's 11 of 12 in save opportunities and has a 1.93 ERA. However, opponents are batting a whopping .310 against him, his WHIP is 1.50, he's allowed 7 runs in 14 innings (3 earned), and has recorded just 5.14 strikeouts per nine innings.

The oddest thing to me was that his Walks plus Hits per Innings Pitched (i.e., WHIP, 1.50) was so close to his ERA (1.93). It got me to wondering if anyone had ever had a higher WHIP than ERA. Here's what I found. Here are the only ones to ever do it (min. 25 IP):

Name	Yr	ERA	WHIP	WHIP to ERA Ratio	IP
Buck O'Brien	1911	0.38	1.07	2.83	47.7
Foster Edwards	1926	0.72	1.32	1.83	25.0
Hank Aguirre	1968	0.69	1.14	1.67	39.3
Bobby Castillo	1979	1.11	1.60	1.44	24.3
Paul Kilgus	1993	0.63	0.91	1.44	28.7
Ray Searage	1984	0.70	0.94	1.33	38.3
Earl Hamilton	1918	0.83	1.11	1.33	54.0
Rob Murphy	1986	0.72	0.93	1.31	50.3
Laurie Reis	1877	0.75	0.97	1.30	36.0
Bob Veale	1963	1.04	1.27	1.22	77.7
Barry Latman	1958	0.76	0.92	1.22	47.7
Harry Otis	1909	1.37	1.67	1.22	26.3
George McQuillan	1907	0.66	0.78	1.19	41.0
Chris Hammond	2002	0.95	1.11	1.17	76.0
Walt Masterson	1945	1.08	1.24	1.15	25.0
Nelson Chittum	1959	1.19	1.32	1.11	30.3
Bob Spade	1907	1.00	1.11	1.11	27.0
Bill Harris	1931	0.87	0.97	1.11	31.0
Jack Taylor	1892	1.38	1.46	1.06	26.0
Gus Dorner	1902	1.25	1.28	1.02	36.0
Carmen Hill	1915	1.15	1.17	1.02	47.0
Nick Maddox	1907	0.83	0.83	1.00	54.0
Martin Glendon	1903	0.98	0.98	1.00	27.7
Rich Gossage	1981	0.77	0.77	1.00	46.7
Dennis Eckersley	1990	0.61	0.61	1.00	73.3
Bob Milacki	1988	0.72	0.72	1.00	25.0

Lyon's WHIP-to-ERA ratio is actually .78. Here are all the pitchers with at least 50 IP and a WHIP-to-ERA ratio of at least .75:

Name	Yr	ERA	WHIP	WHIP to ERA Ratio	IP
Earl Hamilton	1918	0.83	1.11	1.33	54.0
Rob Murphy	1986	0.72	0.93	1.31	50.3
Bob Veale	1963	1.04	1.27	1.22	77.7
Chris Hammond	2002	0.95	1.11	1.17	76.0
Nick Maddox	1907	0.83	0.83	1.00	54.0
Dennis Eckersley	1990	0.61	0.61	1.00	73.3
Tim Keefe	1880	0.86	0.84	0.98	105.0
Dale Murray	1974	1.03	0.99	0.96	69.7
Bill Henry	1964	0.87	0.83	0.96	52.0
Darold Knowles	1972	1.37	1.31	0.96	65.7
Red Faber	1918	1.23	1.15	0.94	80.7
Junior Thompson	1946	1.29	1.21	0.94	62.7
Dutch Leonard	1914	0.96	0.89	0.92	224.7
Ferdie Schupp	1916	0.90	0.83	0.92	140.3
Jose Mesa	1995	1.13	1.03	0.92	64.0
Carl Lundgren	1907	1.17	1.07	0.91	207.0
Mordecai Brown	1906	1.04	0.93	0.90	277.3
Frank Williams	1986	1.20	1.07	0.89	52.3
John Weyhing	1888	1.23	1.05	0.85	65.7
Jack Pfiester	1907	1.15	0.98	0.85	195.0
Joey Eischen	2002	1.34	1.14	0.85	53.7
Frank Linzy	1965	1.43	1.21	0.85	81.7
Rollie Fingers	1981	1.04	0.87	0.84	78.0
George Kahler	1910	1.60	1.32	0.82	95.3
Red Munger	1944	1.34	1.10	0.82	121.0
Jeff Brantley	1990	1.56	1.27	0.81	86.7
George Witt	1958	1.61	1.29	0.80	106.0
Rod Scurry	1982	1.74	1.38	0.79	103.7
Jack Coombs	1910	1.30	1.03	0.79	353.0
Hippo Vaughn	1913	1.45	1.14	0.79	56.0
Hoyt Wilhelm	1967	1.31	1.03	0.79	89.0
Steve Hamilton	1965	1.39	1.08	0.78	58.3
John Smoltz	2003	1.12	0.87	0.78	64.3
Ugueth Urbina	1998	1.30	1.01	0.78	69.3
Babe Adams	1909	1.11	0.85	0.77	130.0
Ted Abernathy	1967	1.27	0.98	0.77	106.3
Ken Tatum	1969	1.36	1.04	0.77	86.3
Randy Myers	1997	1.51	1.16	0.77	59.7
Frank Killen	1891	1.68	1.28	0.77	96.7
Al Brazle	1943	1.53	1.17	0.76	88.0
Bob Gibson	1968	1.12	0.85	0.76	304.7
Bob Miller	1971	1.64	1.25	0.76	98.7
John Franco	1996	1.83	1.39	0.76	54.0
Les Lancaster	1989	1.36	1.03	0.76	72.7
Walter Johnson	1918	1.27	0.95	0.75	326.0
Tim Burke	1987	1.19	0.89	0.75	91.0

I included the lists in their entirety because I thought them cool. Also, the number of great seasons therein tell you how well a pitcher has to pitch for an entire season to be included. That said, I can't imagine that Lyon can keep up his dual-personality act all season. A close who allows one or two baserunners an appearance just cannot continue to be effective over the course of season. You'll not that John Franco's 1.39 WHIP in 1996 was the closest to Lyon's but that was just in 54 innings.

Comments

2005-05-05 04:51:53

1. John Hill

I remember last year Danny Graves got off to a flying start in saves too.

2005-05-05 06:32:46

2. kcboomer

Earl Moore in 1908 posted an era of 0.00 and a WHiP of 1.15.

2005-05-05 06:57:40

3. Mike Carminati

KCBoomer,

Actually his WHIP was 1.08 with a 0.00 ERA in 26 IP in 1908. But his ratio was infinite and dropped out of the query. I fixed it and found that he was the only one.