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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 :)

12 comments:

  1. Bob Forsch '77 -- specifically, his Strat-O-Matic card -- was Lesson 1 in my "hard-knocks" education that W-L records aren't all they seem.

    Condolences to his family and friends, as well as the communities of the St. Louis Cardinals and the Billings, MT Mustangs.

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  2. I just looked it up---Forsch and Alou were both active in 1974 (Alou's last year and Forsch's first) but they did not face each other.

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  3. I remember the 1982 WS, as Whitey did in the ESPN story.

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  4. Strange . . . Billings, Montana is also where Dave McNally died. (See #22 in Andy's chart.)

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  5. Strange indeed. Before Forsch, only 14 major leaguers had died anywhere in Montana:

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/bio/MT_died.shtml

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  6. And 20 were born there:

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/bio/MT_born.shtml

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  7. @6

    I just looked, B-R indicates 22 players born in Montana.

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  8. I hope I did not create the impression that Forsch had died in Montana; I only meant that he was last employed as the pitching coach for the Billings Mustangs.

    According to news sources online, Forsch died at his home near Tampa, FL.

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  9. Forsch's Top 2 in similarity among pitchers are Paul Splittorff and Mike Flanagan. All three have died in the past 6 months.

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  10. Again, my prayers are offerred to Mr. Forsch and his family.

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  11. My "also" in #4 above implies that I thought Forsch died in Billings, Montana. That's misleading; I was only commenting on the unlikely connection of Billings to two 20-game winners. Sorry!

    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.

    Or, we could add, really good defense, which helps explain the presence of Dave McNally ('69 Orioles) and Mike Cuéllar ('70 and '71 Orioles) on Andy's list. These were Frank Robinson's last three years in Baltimore, so I suspect McNally and Cuéllar received some pretty good run support too.

    Fun stat: Cuéllar posted a career National League ERA of 2.97 (111 ERA+), with a W-L record of 42-41 (.506). His career AL ERA was 3.20 (109 ERA+), but his W-L record was 143-89 (.616). That's what going from the Al Spangler Astros to the Frank Robinson Orioles will do for your "ability" to win games.

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  12. No question good defense helped some of these guys, but that should be (mostly) accounted for in their ERA+, so good run support is still probably the major contributor to the W-L record.

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