Pirates Play Moneyball 1951 - ????

[Brad K]

League single season pitching leaders 1951-1970

ERA, Wins, WAR

[Brad K]

Career league pitching leaders 1951-1970

ERA, Wins, WAR

[Brad K]

Sorry about the height of this one. And the jagged edges. Had to do multiple screen shots and put them together.

20 game winners 1951-1970

[Brad K]

No hit games 1951-1970 (not a mis trim, none in 1970)

[Brad K]

Pirate batting leaders 1951-1970.

BA, HRs. WAR

[Brad K]

Pirate pitching leaders 1951-1970

ERA, Wins, WAR

[Brad K]

Most of the single season and career leaders are real life Pirates! Some of them didn't play for the Pirates for a long time real life (ex: Jim Bunning played for the Pirates 1 1/2 seasons late in his career) but most are Pirate farm system products.

So who are the outsiders? In batting there aren't many.

All the single season BA leaders are RL PIrates. Non RL Pirates Felipe Alou and Jim Northrup cracked the career (with the Pirates) BA list.

All of the HR leaders, single season and Pirate career, are RL Pirates except for Felipe Alou on the career list, as are the hitting career WAR leaders. Ken Hubbs is the only non RL Pirate who made the single season WAR top ten.

Pitching has more outsiders, perhaps reflecting the traditional belief the Pirates farm didn't produce many good pitchers. (It didn't produce many good OBP guys either, but that's a different story.)

In career ERA Barry Latman are Connie Johnson are the only non RL Pirates. There are three on the career list, Connie Johnson, Mike Cuellar, and Latman again.

Johnson and Mike Cuellar appear on the single season wins list and Johnson, Latman, Cuellar, and JIm Palmer on the career wins list.

Johnson is on the single season WAR list, and on the career WAR list with Cuellar and Jim Palmer.

[Brad K]

Since Connie Johnson is all over the pitching top ten lists, here's some background. Real life he broke in at age 31. He played for the White Sox 1953 and 1955-56, and the Orioles 1956-58. He had a WAR of 5.3 in 1956 and 6.1 in 1957. He had a good although short career. He looks like yet another guy who prejudice kept out of the majors when he was at his best.

In my game, he was offered in trade after the 1952 season when I was shopping 36 year old catcher Mike Sandlock. He was 29 with no MLB experience. He had a low rating but better potential so, running a team that was 77-83 in 1952 I figured why not.

He was in the Pirates farm system for several years. He got called up briefly in 1955 and after starting 1956 in AAA got called up and stayed.

In 1957, his age 34 season, he was 18-8 with a 2.53 ERA and a NL leading 7.7 WAR and won the Cy Young award. He repeated in 7.7 WAR in 1958, again leading the NL, and won the Cy again.

Johnson was a very good pitcher real life although he had a short career. In OOTP he exceeded his real life performance by a plausible amount. He could just as easily under performed real life by a plausible amount. Ah, the joys of recalc with development on and TCR 100! A great way to play.

[Brad K]

Pirates W-L record 1951-1970 and payroll rank.

I've been doing a screenshot of payroll rank on opening day. I've since discovered that during the season the rank usually drops a spot or two. I guess other teams are more inclined to add payroll during the season than I am.

Anyway, I'm sticking with opening day as my measuring point for now. Its easy to remember to do the screen shot at that time.

[Brad K]

When expansion teams come in they set a new low for payroll. I haven't been able to get below 15 since the Astros and Mets came in. The 69 expansion expanded the bottom further but fortunately coincided with an influx of good minimum wage Pirates.

[Brad K]

AL and NL Award Winners 1951-1970

[Brad K]

OK, I think that's about it for statistics, awards, trivia, etc, and I can go back to posting newspaper articles. I know a lot of people read them for the ads!

[Brad K]

Since you know from post 171 Bob Robertson (of the "what do you mean I was supposed to bunt" incident) was 1970 NL rookie of the year, here's the article from his, well not hometown newspaper, but the next town over which covers the county.

[Brad K]

OK, 1971 here we come.

[luckymann]

Originally Posted by Brad K

OK, 1971 here we come.

Bring it!

[Brad K]

Those pesky Mets are always around.

[luckymann]

Nice 6th man to be able to slot into the rotation there...

[Brad K]

Here is how AI classified my pitchers prior to the season. I've had lots of SPs for several years now even with losing some to free agency and injuries and trading some. Some of the guys aren't at their peak.

Also I choose who is on the roster and let the manager decide starters and relievers. On offense I decide the depth charts and let the manager decide the batting order. Occasional over rides on both but not often.

[Brad K]

At the All Star break...

[luckymann]

Originally Posted by Brad K

Here is how AI classified my pitchers prior to the season. I've had lots of SPs for several years now even with losing some to free agency and injuries and trading some. Some of the guys aren't at their peak.

Also I choose who is on the roster and let the manager decide starters and relievers. On offense I decide the depth charts and let the manager decide the batting order. Occasional over rides on both but not often.

Did Nolan's move to the rotation knock his ratings down a bit?