The Biggest Loser
By Blake VandeBunte • Sep 8th, 2008 • Category: 2008 season, Jeremy Bonderman, Mike MarothAccording to his personal website, Mike Maroth is rehabbing his shoulder and hopes to pitch professionally in 2009. Maroth was traded by the Tigers last season to the St. Louis Cardinals and threw in three games for the Kansas City Royals AAA team this spring. In his 7.2 innings of work in AAA this season he has an ERA of 12.91, thus the surgery.
Maroth was always a class act with the Tigers. He was upset when he was left off the Tigers playoff roster in 2006 but he wasn’t a distraction. He always took his turn in the rotation on some really bad Tigers teams. Maroth is currently the answer to a fairly dubious trivia question: Who is the last Major League pitcher to lose at least 20 games in one season?
Maroth famously went 9-21 in 2003 but never missed a start. That same season Jeremy Bonderman went 6-19 but made only two starts in September as the Tigers tried to cut down his innings and the chance he would also lose 20 games. Maroth on the other hand picked up his 19th loss in late August and just kept trucking right on through, making five starts in September and taking some lumps along the way.
You don’t see dedication like Maroth’s anymore. When pitchers start approaching that 20 loss mark it seems like they’ll miss a start here or there or move the the bullpen (like Bonderman) to avoid that 20th loss. The last player to lose 20 games before Maroth did it in 2003 was Brian Kingman way back in 1980. Since 1990 then 9 players have lost 19 games. I’m going to take a look and see how many of those guys had their work load lessened at the end of the season to avoid the 20 loss mark.
- Tim Leary (NYY) 1990, 19 losses: Leary picked up his 19th loss in the Yankees 149th game. This means he missed at least two starts at the end of the season.
- Jose DeLeon (STL) 1990, 19 losses: Lost seven straight starts to end the season. Last game pitched was in game 156 which means he also missed at least one start. Omar Olivares took his spot in the rotation at the end of the year.
- Kirk McCaskill (CAL) 1991, 19 losses: McCaskill lost his 18th on September 4th and didn’t pitch again until the 27th when he lost number 19. He didn’t appear in any Minor League games that season and also didn’t appear to suffer any injuries. They clearly sat him.
- Scott Erickson (MIN) 1993, 19 losses: Lost his 19th in game 149 and still made two more starts after the loss. He had a 3.38 in those final two starts and didn’t miss any playing time.
- Omar Daal (ARI/PHI) 2000, 19 losses: Lost number 19 in game 147 and made two more starts after that loss. Posted an ERA of 2.25 over those last two starts.
- Bobby Jones (SDP) 2001, 19 losses: Had a start skipped due to 9/11 (I’m guessing) but continued to take the ball regularly after that. Lost his 19th in his teams 158th game so he never took the mound looking at number twenty.
- Albie Jones (TBD/ARI) 2001, 19 losses: Again, appears he missed a start due to 9/11 but came back and took a couple of shots at his 20th loss. Lost number 19 with two starts left. Over his final two starts he had an ERA of 0.53. Made the Diamondbacks postseason roster and appeared in the World Series.
- Jeremy Bonderman (DET) 2003, 19 losses: I think we covered him already.
- Darrell May (KCR) 2004, 19 losses: Picked up his 19th loss in game 157 so it doesn’t look like he ever took the mound looking for that 20th loss. He also didn’t miss any starts.
I’m surprised that so many of these guys (about half) took the mound a few times with the possibility of picked up their 20th loss. What’s not so surprising is that most of the pitchers on this list (with the exceptions of Bonderman and Erickson) saw their careers stop shortly after these awful seasons. Albie Jones is one of the more interesting names on here since he managed to lose 19 games while starting down the stretch for the team that would win the World Series.
Barry Zito leads baseball with 16 losses right now while Aaron Harang (CIN) and Justin Verlander each have 15. Verlander seems the least likely to lose 20 since he plays on the best team of this group. Zito has four starts left on a team that is 62-80 so if he loses out he could join the 20 loss club, if the Giants don’t sit him.
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