Today’s Sports Stat: May 20, 2019
Most starts by a Brewers pitcher without a complete game
It’s pretty obvious that complete games are a dying breed in baseball. It is rare that a starting pitcher goes nine innings and gets credited with a complete game,
The Brewers are certainly one of those teams that use their bullpen quite a bit during the season. Through games of May 20, the Brewers are one of 17 teams this year that does not have a complete game by one of its pitchers. (In fact, the Brewers last complete game by a pitcher happened in 2017.) There have been only 15 complete games so far in the majors; in 2018, the Cleveland Indians led the majors with five complete games. There were nine of the 30 teams that did not have a complete game in 2018.
Zach Davies, who has been the Brewers most effective pitcher this season with a 5-0 record and a 1.54 ERA, has started 89 games for the Brewers in his career and has yet to have a complete game. This year on May 5 he pitched into the eighth inning in a game against the Mets and finished with 7.2 innings pitched. His career long start is eight innings back on June 1, 2016 in a contest versus the Cardinals, a game that he was the winner.
Davies’ 89 starts for the Brewers without a complete game are the most in team history. Fellow starter this season, Chase Anderson, is close behind with 88 starts for Milwaukee without a complete game.
Here are the nine pitchers in Brewers history who (through games of May 20) have 50 or more career starts with the team without a complete game.
89-Zach Davies
88-Chase Anderson
74-Manny Parra
70-Marco Estrada
62- Chris Narveson
62-Jimmy Haynes
60-Junior Guerra
56-Mike Fiers
54-Shaun Marcum
If we expand this list to all MLB pitchers, there is a distinct Brewers flavor on the list. You noticed that Marco Estrada had 70 starts without a complete game during his career with the Brewers. Well, he actually (currently) holds the record for most starts without a complete game in MLB history with 194 in his career. Following are the MLB pitchers with 150 or more career starts without a complete game.
194-Marco Estrada
188-Bud Norris
170-Wei-Yin Chen
167-Tony Armas
167-Jake Odorizzi
152-Nathan Eovaldi
Chase Anderson is actually 10th of this list with a total of 136 starts without a complete game (88 coming in a Brewers uniform).
Of course, a complete game in the future by any of these pitchers listed above will eliminate them from the list. But for now… it’s interesting to see who is still looking for that elusive complete game. The problem is, however, that complete games are pretty rare these days.
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Today’s Sports Stats: March 13, 2018
Can Chase Anderson end an “ugly” trend that has affected the Milwaukee Brewers over the past four seasons?
It was announced yesterday that Anderson will be the Opening Day starting pitcher for the Brew Crew this season. It is certainly an honor that Anderson deserves.
The problem, however, is that Brewers’ Opening Day starting pitchers over the last four seasons have gone on to have less-than-stellar seasons in the year they started Game One.
Anderson is the fifth different Opening Day starting pitcher for the Brewers in the last five years. The others: Yovani Gallardo (2014), Kyle Lohse (2015), Wily Peralta (2016) and Junior Guerra (2017).
The trend is that these last four pitchers mentioned in the previous paragraph had losing records that season they got the nod to start Opening Day: Gallardo went 8-11 in 2014; Lohse was 5-13 in 2015; Peralta ended 2016 at 7-11; and last year, Guerra ended the year with a 1-4 record. Needless to say, the Brewers are hopeful that Anderson can break this disturbing trend.
Looking back to the 18 Opening Day starting pitchers for the Brewers since 2000, there were only seven seasons where the Opening Day starting pitcher ended the year with a winning record. Gallardo was the O.D. starter each year from 2010-2013 and ended each of those four years with winning records. Ben Sheets was the team’s O.D. starter in 2005, 2007 and 2008 and ended those three years with more wins than losses. (Note: Doug Davis was the starter in 2006 and ended that year with an 11-11 record.)
The Brewers since 2000 have started nine different Opening Day starting pitchers…
Steve Woodard, 2000
Jamey Wright, 2001
Ben Sheets, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008
Doug Davis, 2006
Jeff Suppan, 2009
Yovani Gallardo, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
Kyle Lohse, 2015
Wily Peralta, 2016
Junior Guerra, 2017
The above nine pitchers went a combined 179-183 in the years they were the O.D. starting pitcher for the Brewers, a .494 winning percentage. The best season of the O.D. starters since 2000 was Sheets in 2007; he was the O.D. starter that year and ended the season with a 12-5 record (.706 winning percentage). The worst was Steve Woodard in 2000; he was the O.D. starter in 2000 and ended that year with a 1-7 (.125 winning percentage) for the Brewers.
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