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Bob Forsch

Posted by Andy
Holy crap--a second untimely death in two days as Bob Forsch passes away shortly after throwing out the first pitch at Game 7 of the World Series a week ago.

That's incredibly sad--my thoughts go out to his family and to Cardinals fans.

I know that Raphy is writing some details about Forsch's career. Other than the multiple no-hitters, the thing that I always remember about Forsch's stats was how lucky he was to win 20 games in 1977.

Click through for the details.

Here are the lowest ERA+ values for a pitcher since 1950 to win at least 20 games while having fewer than 10 losses:

Rk Player ERA+ W L Year Age Tm G GS CG SHO GF IP H R ER BB SO ERA
1 Steve Carlton 102 20 9 1971 26 STL 37 36 18 4 0 273.1 275 120 108 98 172 3.56
2 Jack Morris 102 21 6 1992 37 TOR 34 34 6 1 0 240.2 222 114 108 80 132 4.04
3 Mike Cuellar 105 24 8 1970 33 BAL 40 40 21 4 0 297.2 273 126 115 69 190 3.48
4 John Burkett 107 22 7 1993 28 SFG 34 34 2 1 0 231.2 224 100 94 40 145 3.65
5 Bob Grim 107 20 6 1954 24 NYY 37 20 8 1 8 199.0 175 78 72 85 108 3.26
6 Tom Browning 107 20 9 1985 25 CIN 38 38 6 4 0 261.1 242 111 103 73 155 3.55
7 Catfish Hunter 107 21 5 1973 27 OAK 36 36 11 3 0 256.1 222 105 95 69 124 3.34
8 Bill Gullickson 108 20 9 1991 32 DET 35 35 4 0 0 226.1 256 109 98 44 91 3.90
9 Vic Raschi 108 21 8 1950 31 NYY 33 32 17 2 1 256.2 232 120 114 116 155 4.00
10 Mudcat Grant 108 21 7 1965 29 MIN 41 39 14 6 0 270.1 252 107 99 61 142 3.30
11 Bob Feller 109 22 8 1951 32 CLE 33 32 16 4 1 249.2 239 105 97 95 111 3.50
12 Vida Blue 109 20 9 1973 23 OAK 37 37 13 4 0 263.2 214 108 96 105 158 3.28
13 Rick Helling 109 20 7 1998 27 TEX 33 33 4 2 0 216.1 209 109 106 78 164 4.41
14 Jon Lieber 109 20 6 2001 31 CHC 34 34 5 1 0 232.1 226 104 98 41 148 3.80
15 Rick Sutcliffe 109 20 6 1984 28 TOT 35 35 9 3 0 244.2 234 113 99 85 213 3.64
16 Mike Cuellar 109 20 9 1971 34 BAL 38 38 21 4 0 292.1 250 111 100 78 124 3.08
17 Andy Pettitte 110 21 8 2003 31 NYY 33 33 1 0 0 208.1 227 109 93 50 180 4.02
18 Jack Sanford 111 24 7 1962 33 SFG 39 38 13 2 1 265.1 233 110 101 92 147 3.43
19 Jim Lonborg 112 22 9 1967 25 BOS 39 39 15 2 0 273.1 228 102 96 83 246 3.16
20 Bob Forsch 112 20 7 1977 27 STL 35 35 8 2 0 217.1 210 97 84 69 95 3.48
21 Dave Stewart 112 21 9 1989 32 OAK 36 36 8 0 0 257.2 260 105 95 69 155 3.32
22 Dave McNally 112 20 7 1969 26 BAL 41 40 11 4 0 268.2 232 103 96 84 166 3.22
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 11/4/2011.

These are just about all really lucky seasons, in that the pitchers got a lot of run support or were the beneficiary of well above-average bullpen work.

That's not true for Jack Morris, of course...he just pitched to the score :)