Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro passed away Saturday after a battle with cancer. He was 81 years old.
Niekro rode his knuckleball to 5,404 innings pitched—the most of any pitcher who started his career in the live ball era. But Niekro, who pitched for 21 of his 24 big league seasons with the Braves, was more than simply durable. His 318 wins and 3,342 strikeouts are a testament to a pitcher who was often untouchable.
“Phil Niekro was one of the most distinctive and memorable pitchers of his generation,” said Commissioner Rob Manfred. “In the last century, no pitcher threw more than Phil’s 5,404 innings. His knuckleball led him to five All-Star selections, three 20-win seasons for the Atlanta Braves, the 300-win club, and ultimately, to Cooperstown.
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1. Pasta-diving Jeter (jmac66) Posted: December 27, 2020 at 12:47 PM (#5996108)And strangely, very few of the deaths were COVID.
RIP Phil!
this is now the worst
twitter says another 10 non-HOFers who made at least one All Star game
@sportswatch
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46m
Seven baseball Hall of Famers also died in 1972, including Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente, who obviously became a Hall of Famer after his death.
If WAR doesn't smell right to you, check out their respective Wins Above Average (which seems to better reflect quality over quantity): 26.0 for Wood, 3.9 for Wakefield.
'DIED IN 2020' STARS
SP Tom Seaver
SP Bob Gibson
SP Whitey Ford
SP Phil Niekro
SP Johnny Antonelli
SP Mike McCormick
SP Don Larsen
SP Matt Keough
SP Roger Moret
RP Lindy McDaniel
RP Ron Perranoski
RP Ed Farmer
C Hal Smith
1B Bob Watson
2B Joe Morgan
3B Dick Allen
SS Tony Fernandez
OF Al Kaline
OF Lou Brock
OF Jim Wynn
C Biff Pocoroba
C Don Pavletich
C Mike Ryan
1B-OF Bob Oliver
2B Tony Taylor
2B Glenn Beckert
2B Damaso Garcia
2B Horace Clarke
SS-3B-2B Denis Menke
SS-2B-3B Phil Linz
OF Claudell Washington
OF Jay Johnstone
OF Lou Johnson
Sorry for the over-technicality, etc. but league expansion eventually leads to more deaths of ballplayers. Those who debuted in 1961 would be (give or take) 80+ now, those who debuted with the 2nd expansion would be 70. We're gonna have to get used to lots of ballplayers dying every year. How many are HoFers will vary by the relative HoF induction rates.
Despite its reputation as an uncontrollable pitch impossible to hit, the top knuckleballers don't have particularly high K-rates or particularly high BB-rates and Niekro, Wood and Candiotti all ended up around 2 K/BB. Wilhelm actually had the highest K-rate and K/BB of this bunch; he had the least innings though.
To adjust for Wakefield's extra IP, we can partially cherry-pick his ages 28-42 which comes to 2711 IP, between Wood and Candiotti. That brings his ERA+ up to 109, a period of 35 WAR, 9 WAA. Still short of the other two and it's about the best we can make him look. He doesn't appear particularly hurt by any of the WAR compnents. His raw RA9 is only a bit below the RA9opp to start with, the park factor and role components "help" him. His UER rate doesn't seem much different than the other two and his defenses are credited as only a bit better than average. Wood has a bigger RA9-RA9opp gap, the same park factor, less boost from his role but is "credited" with poor defense -- he'll still be ahead of Wakefield even if we zero out both defenses. Candiottie has the biggest raw RA9-RA9opp gap but also the lowest PF. He also had poor defenses and if we zeroed out his defense, he and Wake would be about a dead WAR heat.
So I think best living knuckleballer has to go to Wood (age 79). Best ERA+, best peak, best WAR/WAA, best WAR/WAA even if we ignore the defense adjustment. And chances are even if you did demonstrate that the PFs or opponent adjustments aren't quite right, that would probably only bring Candiotti or Wakefield level with Wood.
My brother knew Phil a bit - worked with him on some charity events and went fishing on occasion. Always spoke highly of him. RIP.
picking a starting lineup is interesting, maybe
CF Jim Wynn
2B Joe Morgan
RF Al Kaline
3B Dick Allen
1B Bob Watson
SS Tony Fernandez
LF Lou Brock
C Hal Smith
SP Tom Seaver
buts lots of other ways to go, depends in part also on the SP for the opposing year's team that day
For all his legendary workload in the early '70s, over half of Wood's career appearances came in relief; his famous '71 season was the first time he'd had as many as 10 starts. (WAR accounts for this and still has Wood ahead, but it's worth bringing up; it's the reason both Candiotti and Wakefield have more career innings than a guy who exceeded 320 innings four years in a row.)
RIP.
The Pirates released Wakefield in 1995. The records usually record that the Pirates traded Wood for Juan Pizarro (as a PTBNL) in 1967, but the newspaper accounts are all over the place and it may have been two sales with the prices set off, or something.
If the 2020 team wants to knock the walls down, Bob Watson caught 200 games in the minors and occasionally caught early in his major league career. He caught two consecutive full games in 1973, when the Astro outfield was Watson-Cedeno-Wynn and they tried to find a place for Tommie Agee.
for uber-prospect P Patino, C Mejia, and 2 more young arms
OK, you made me look that one up!
So Wood's usage through 1970 was pretty standard for the time (not that we have enough knucklers to really establish a pattern). The main reason he falls shy of Wakefield (and obviously Niekro) in IP is because, unlike the other guys being discussed here, he didn't last into his early 40s. Through age 33, Wood had about 650 more IP than Niekro, 900 more than Candiotti and 1000 more than Wakefield. Unfortunately he had just 350 innings left. There's an alternate universe where Wood is Niekro.
References to guys who had been out of the game for a long time. With a tag line of "but Niekro is older than ..."
A favorite player from my youth. RIP.
Steinecke broke in with the 1927 Waterloo (IA) Hawks of the Mississippi Valley League, which featured former major-leaguer Jim Grant.
Grant broke in with the 1916 Des Moines Boosters of the Western League, who were managed by Frank Isbell.
Isbell played nine seasons for the White Sox (actually, ten, including 1900, when the AL was not a major league) and broke in with the 1896 St. Paul Saints (aka Apostles) of the Western League, which had a whole bunch of big-league players, including 37-year-old Tony Mullane.
Mullane, The Apollo of the Box, fell 16 wins shy of the Hall of Fame and broke in with the 1881 Detroit Wolverines, who featured Lon Knight.
Knight broke in with the 1875 Philadelphia Athletics, who had 35-year-old Al Reach.
Reach broke in with the 1861 Eckford club of Brooklyn, who that season played a match with the club from Newburgh, New York, which is about ten miles from my house.
That is how Posnanski tells it in his Baseball 100 essay on Niekro (83), which was a delight. The final K was his old teammate, Jeff Burroughs.
(I would have guessed Nolan Ryan, who I assume probably threw the most PITCHES)
Knucksie shutting out the Pods and driving in all the runs with a homer on that killer west coast road trip the last week of the season, man.
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