Sporcle Saturday: Good starting pitchers since 1970

Lucas Giolito
Lucas Giolito (Carl Skanberg)

White Sox starting pitching has been *checks notes* not great the past few seasons. Lucas Giolito, of course, was the lone bright spot last season, and it would be swell if that breakout became the norm for him moving foward.

Hopefully the additions of Dallas Keuchel/Gio Gonzalez, the return of Michael Kopech, steps forward from one of either Dylan Cease or Reynaldo Lopez, and an excellent framer in the form of Yasmani Grandal yield yet more fruitful starting pitching in the upcoming season.

Today, we’ll be looking back at the past five decades to see which Sox starting pitchers delivered their own terrific seasons. In all, there are 39 instances, how many can you name? Good luck!

Quiz Parameters

  • To make this list, a pitcher must have started at least 75% of their games, qualified for the ERA title, and logged an ERA of 3.50 or better.
  • I’ve allotted 10 minutes for completion attempts.
  • For hints, I’ve provided the season and the ERA.

Useless information to amaze, annoy, confuse, and/or confound your friends and family:

  • The average triple-slash against of the pitchers on this list: .242/.297/.361.
  • The average ERA+ is 130.
  • The longest drought between pitcher seasons on this list? Four seasons, lasting from 1997-2000.

Direct link here

All data from baseballreference.com


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13 Comments
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KenWo4LiFe

Boomer and I both scored a 36. We both missed a guy that appeared once and a guy that appeared twice. All different guys though. 

He missed 

Spoiler
Bradley and Brett
. I missed 
Spoiler
Kaat and Trout
. And I’ve really grown to despise 
Spoiler
him [/spoiler because he’s a real blind spot for me. I’ve missed that motherfucker many times. Pisses me off. 

VaChisox

Got 37 in about two minutes but couldn’t come up with one of the 1981 pitchers and the 1990 guy. 

roke1960

39/39 with 6:14 remaining. This quiz was right in my wheelhouse.

Embarrassed to say I’ve never heard of Tom Bradley. Looks like he was pretty good.

VaChisox

he liked to wear sun glasses

asinwreck

39/39 with 6:16 to go. My last entry was remembering how to spell the name of the guy currently in custody.

roke1960

You got me by 2 seconds! I can never beat you!

asinwreck

Ah, it’s a tie. Anyway, didn’t you get me with the NRIs a couple of weeks ago?

asinwreck

This one was fun because all the names involved provided pleasant memories. Even a lot of my incorrect guesses were guys who did great things for the Sox. And not a Bukvich to be found!

roke1960

I agree. It’s fun to remember good players. I try to forget all the bad one, and there were plenty of those.

Flitcraft

Edit to remove. The spoiler tag failed. Great quiz Ted.

roke1960

Hopefully, we can add another 3 onto the list in 2020!

Sophist

I got 33, but I spelled

Spoiler
Buehrle
correctly on the first try!