from Amazon
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
The babblefest of Jack Morris, best pitcher of the decade
The best pitcher of the 1980s.
I’m sure you’ve heard that plenty, right? About Jack Morris? Just take some arbitrary 10-year period, preferably bordered by round numbers, like “80s”, and you have your test of greatness. Why not “pitcher of the decade”, and take something like 1976-1985? Or 1986-1995?
Anyway, let’s get back to 1980-1989. In that time period, Jack Morris led the league with 2443.2 innings. Let’s set the minimum IP qualifier to 80% of that (1955 IP). We actually get back only 11 pitchers. Among those pitchers:
Morris is 7th in ERA+! Unquestionably, the pitcher of the 1980s was not Jack Morris, but David Stieb, with the era-leading ERA+ of 127, far ahead of #2 Bert Blyleven. Here’s the full list.
Jack Morris’s W/L record was 162-119, a win% of .577. But, that’s #2 behind Bob Welch’s .596. Stieb was third at .562. Steib was also 2nd in IP.
What’s better? The #1 (by far) in ERA+, #2 in IP, and #3 in win%, or the #1 in IP, #2 in win%, and #7 in ERA+? I know this sounds like a trick question, but it’s not! There’s been mountains of ink spilled by people claiming, proudly, that it’s the latter.
Let’s shift things by one year: 1981-1990. The IP leader (Morris again) was 2443.1, making the threshhold level 1955 innings. Now, Stieb looks even better, bumping his ERA+ by 2 points to 129, compared to Morris’ 108. His win% is .593 while Morris is at .569. Heck, Morris doesn’t even compare to Bob Welch (ERA+ of 115). Welch was 150-90, compared to Morris’ 161-122. You get 11 more wins with Morris, but 32 more losses too! Morris had a 3.70 ERA compared to Welch’s 3.17.
If you want to give Morris credit for most wins for the decade, fine, go ahead. But, don’t call him the best pitcher for the decade. Stieb is definitely ahead of him. And with Welch, Nolan Ryan, Bert Blyleven, Charlie Hough and Fernando Valenzuela around, Morris is lucky to even be considered better than any of those guys for “best” pitcher of the 80s.