Good morning!
Entering Friday night’s game against Anaheim, rookie pitcher Tanner Banks sports a 0.00 ERA over 12.1 IP. No runs, earned or otherwise, have been allowed on his watch. As a rookie playing in his first major league games, it would appear he has set a franchise record in that regard as no other White Sox rookie pitcher has gone this long without allowing a run. What a start and what a story!
While the odds are against him going much longer with allowing a run, a decent season in middle/long relief could be in the cards. My hope is that by season’s end he’s pitched well enough to qualify for today’s Sporcle: relief pitcher seasons who have notched an ERA of 2.50 or lower while appearing in at least 30 games. To date, a Mark Buehrle’s jersey number worth of White Sox pitchers in franchise history have accomplished that: how many can you name? Good luck!
Quiz Parameters
- In addition to the qualifiers above, a pitcher must have also appeared in at least 80% of their games as a reliever.
- I’ve allotted 15 minutes for completion attempts.
- For hints, I’ve provided the season and the final ERA of each pitcher in question.
Useless information to amaze, annoy, confuse, and/or confound your friends and family:
- The average FIP from the players on this list is 3.07, compared to an average ERA of 2.10.
- The highest number of IP on this list is 165.1, in 1965. That pitcher also led the AL that year in appearances (82) and WHIP (.974).
- The lowest BB/9 came from a pitcher in 1967, with 1.7.
- Among all MLB relief pitchers with the lowest BB/9 in baseball history (minimum 30 G), Dennis Eckersley leads the list at 0.5, accomplished in back-to-back seasons, 1989-1990.
All data from stathead.com
40/56. Missed a few I should have had
Here’s a transcript of a fun interview with one of answers:
Interview
I met Pall at the 2014 CWS fantasy camp I attended. Drove him from facilities back to the hotel. Talked about how they traded him for Ivan Calderon in Aug 1993 and what a shock that was to him. Amazingly nice, down-to-earth guy.
Whoops, traded him so that they could pick up Calderon from Expos. Forgot that Pall went to Phillies.
I gave up after 27. I should have gotten a lot more. My best get was 1954, just from guessing a random last name.
Moncada has a hit in the Charlotte game. Good news imo.
What is up with Pollock playing left and batting third against a lefty today while Vaughn sits?
Vaughn’s hurt. Got hit by a pitch on his hand last night. X-rays negative, but evidently hurts quite a bit today.
I was watching Ozark when that happened. Thanks. Still, it seems weird to bat him third.
50/56, missing all of the four earliest guys. The most recent miss was from 1986, and the names I guessed for that year were unlikely to actually have an ERA that low given the generally poor performance of that staff.