Worth reading for the George Brett story alone.

Splitt was the first name that came to my mind. The late 70s was great for pitchers that couldn't strike anyone out.

Surprisingly Jaime Moyer didn't make any lists.

Interesting point about Weaver looking at the gun for changing speeds.

Surprisingly Jaime Moyer didn't make any lists.

Not eligible yet.

I think there are two types of CLs. The natural borns - the McGregor and Splitt types - and the Modified CL - the ones who learn craftiness to compensate for injury/age*. Tanana being the archetype, though Flanagan struck me as more of the latter than the former.

*Interestingly, Mussina may ultimately gain admittance to this sub-group, if they're willing to overlook one of the eligibility requirements.

The "over the last 50 years" steals his thunder, but Eddie Lopat has 47 such games. After Summer of '49, he is my ultimate go-to crafty lefty.

This is my favorite kind of JoePoz column, where he comes up with some formula for defining an undefinable list and gets a great list and entertaining column.

No Terry Mulholland though. Huh.

Mark Buehrle's only done this 5 times, but if you look at overall averages you can make the argument that he's the greatest crafty lefty of the last 50 years. From BBRef, LH pitchers from 1951 to 2011, 200+ decisions, 70% of appearances as starters, less that 6 K/9, less than 3 BB/9, more than 9 hits/9, sorted by ERA+:

EDIT: Should have said "best", not "greatest", which implies "crafty leftyist". Also, the table looks bad.


Rk Player SO/9 H/9 BB/9 W L W-L% ERA ERA+
1 Mark Buehrle 5.07 9.45 2.04 158 116 .577 3.80 121
2 Curt Simmons 4.38 9.01 2.57 164 152 .519 3.43 114
3 Tommy John 4.29 9.14 2.41 288 231 .555 3.34 111
4 Charlie Leibrandt 4.37 9.32 2.56 140 119 .541 3.71 109
5 Jim Kaat 4.89 9.18 2.15 283 237 .544 3.45 108
6 David Wells 5.76 9.51 1.88 239 157 .604 4.13 108
7 Geoff Zahn 3.43 9.63 2.56 111 109 .505 3.74 107
8 Zane Smith 4.74 9.28 2.73 100 115 .465 3.74 105
9 Jamie Moyer 5.38 9.30 2.55 267 204 .567 4.24 104
10 Claude Osteen 4.19 9.03 2.44 196 195 .501 3.30 104
11 Paul Splittorff 3.72 9.31 2.75 166 143 .537 3.81 101
12 Jerry Reuss 4.68 9.16 2.76 220 191 .535 3.64 100
13 Mike Flanagan 4.84 9.12 2.89 167 143 .539 3.90 100
14 Dick Ellsworth 4.76 9.49 2.48 115 137 .456 3.72 100
15 Scott McGregor 3.80 9.44 2.18 138 108 .561 3.99 99
16 Tom Browning 4.69 9.05 2.39 123 90 .577 3.94 98
17 Kirk Rueter 3.84 9.82 2.73 130 92 .586 4.27 98
18 Bob Knepper 4.90 9.10 2.85 146 155 .485 3.68 95
19 Ross Grimsley 3.31 9.29 2.47 124 99 .556 3.81 92


Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/25/2011.

The "I throw with the wrong hand" Hall of Fame:

Mel Stottlemyre 29
Lary Sorensen 27
Mike Torrez 21
Rick Reuschel 21
Doyle Alexander 21

The "over the last 50 years" steals his thunder, but Eddie Lopat has 47 such games. After Summer of '49, he is my ultimate go-to crafty lefty.

If you extend my list from #6 back to 1901, then Eddie Lopat is #2 by ERA+ at 116, just above Eppa Rixey.

I think for the modern era it should be six and a third innings rather than 7.

min 6.1, since 1990:

Tom Glavine 26
Kenny Rogers 21
David Wells 18
Mark Buehrle 18
Terry Mulholland 17

For one season, especially this game, Jeff Ballard was a crafty god.

For one season, especially this game, Jeff Ballard was a crafty god.

Cool. Not only 0 K's, but 0 swinging strikes! Love it.

Casey Stengel took great relish in Lopat's success while throwing the ball 65 mph.

One of my favorite baseball announcer moments involved Charlie Liebrandt. In the intro to a Braves game when he was pitching Skip Caray referred to him as a crafty lefty. Skip's partner that night (Don Sutton, I believe) said if you throw like that and you're a righty they call you coach.

Liebrandt also pitched in a fantastic 1 - 0 loss against the SF Giants in my last trip to the old Launching Pad. The Giants leadoff hitter (their CF, was Lewis his name?) hit a homer and that was it. Terrific, tense game when both teams were strong

Does the mere fact of not striking people out make one crafty? Guys like Wells and Reuss seemed to throw...well, not hard, but they weren't soft tossers. Aaron Cook never strikes anyone out but threw in the low 90's. Whereas Fernando didn't throw hard (87 or so IIRC) and started out as a strikeout pitcher.

Bill Lee was that type of pitcher.

I was at this game.

Check out the opposing pitcher

Crafty Osteen had double-digit wins AND losses 10 straight years (all with 237+ IP), AND at least 20 decisions in his last 14 seasons.

Retired at age 35 off a 90 ERA+ and 204 IP. Released by Pale Hose 4 days before the 1976 season opener. White Sox wound up with an 85 ERA+, 10 guys started at least 6 games, and Goose Gossage had his sole season as a SP while the late Ken Brett was the best man in the rotation. Terry Forster started 16 games, Blue Moon Odom started 4 in his final season, future Cy Pete Vuckovich started 7 as a rookie... Brian Downing, Bucky Dent, Jorge Orta, Chet Lemon, Ralph Garr, Carlos May, 50-year-old Minnie Minoso, better known for other seasons and/or elsewhere - but no room for Claude Osteen.

Not even a mention of Tom Browning?

I didn't go through his game logs to check for crafty occurrences but his career numbers seem to match up with the criteria.

1921 IP, 9.0 H/9, 4.7 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 3.94 ERA, 98 ERA+.


Yeah he's probably not even good enough to enter the crafty lefty HOF, but for one game he was as crafty as any lefty ever. My friends and I like to reflect about the dozens of other times we saw Browning carry a perfect into the 5th or 6th before he got shelled.

Not even a mention of Tom Browning?

I didn't go through his game logs to check for crafty occurrences but his career numbers seem to match up with the criteria.

1921 IP, 9.0 H/9, 4.7 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 3.94 ERA, 98 ERA+.


Yeah he's probably not even good enough to enter the crafty lefty HOF, but for one game he was as crafty as any lefty ever. My friends and I like to reflect about the dozens of other times we saw Browning carry a perfect into the 5th or 6th before he got shelled.

That is why you need PI.... Browning met the criteria that Posnanski listed 8 times in his career.

Bruce Chen the other night struck out 9 without breaking I think 87.

#6 Try the code tag

I tried thinking of the Dodgers' crafty lefties of recent vintage... and couldn't come up with anyone.

Get this: [http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/B6Onu]The team's last CL game[/url], according to Poz's standards, was in 1989 (Valenzuela). Since moving to LA, the Dodgers had 72 such games, with Osteen throwing 28.

Wasn't there a period -- I wanna say mid-90s -- where the Dodgers went an absurd number of games without any lefties starting, period?

Sandy wept.

Fixed link: http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/share.cgi?id=B6Onu

Crafty or no, lefty K career leaders

Rank Player (age) Strikeouts Throws
2. Randy Johnson 4875 L
4. Steve Carlton+ 4136 L
18. Mickey Lolich 2832 L
21. Frank Tanana 2773 L
23. Chuck Finley 2610 L
24. Tom Glavine 2607 L
25. Warren Spahn+ 2583 L
28. Jerry Koosman 2556 L
33. Mark Langston 2464 L
34. Jim Kaat 2461 L
35. Sam McDowell 2453 L
37. Jamie Moyer 2405 L
40. Sandy Koufax+ 2396 L
44. Rube Waddell+ 2316 L
47. Lefty Grove+ 2266 L
48. Andy Pettitte 2251 L
49. Eddie Plank+ 2246 L
50. Tommy John 2245 L
52. David Wells 2201 L
54. Vida Blue 2175 L
59. Fernando Valenzuela 2074 L
65. Billy Pierce 1999 L
68. CC Sabathia (30) 1978 L
70. Al Leiter 1974 L
72. Kenny Rogers 1968 L
73. Whitey Ford+ 1956 L
81. Jerry Reuss 1907 L
84. Johan Santana (32) 1877 L
86. Frank Viola 1844 L
90. Hal Newhouser+ 1796 L
91. Ron Guidry 1778 L
93. Rudy May 1760 L
97. Sid Fernandez 1743 L