Good morning!
On today's date in 2001, the White Sox and Pirates consummated a trade: Kenny Williams shipped out Kip Wells, Josh Fogg, and Sean Lowe in exchange for Todd Ritchie and Lee Evans. That, of course, did not work out as Ritchie played one lousy season with the White Sox to the tune of a 5-15 record, 6.06 ERA, and -1.7 bWAR.
Kip Wells and Josh Fogg went on to have fine seasons with the Pirates (3.58 ERA across 198.1 innings pitched and 4.35 ERA across 194.1 IP, respectively) and solid if unspectacular careers thereafter. Not a great exchange for the Sox! (Lowe wasn't great for the Buccos, by the way, accumulating -.7 bWAR and a 5.35 ERA before getting released by the Pirates in September of the following season; he was out of MLB after the 2003 season.)
Still, that trade's headliner is the impetus for today's quiz, which will ask you to: name the White Sox pitchers throughout franchise history who tallied at least 15 losses and also logged an ERA of 4.00 or higher. That results in 38 player-seasons. How many can you name? Good luck!
Quiz Parameters
- I've allotted 15 minutes for completion attempts.
- For hints I've listed the year, number of losses, and ERA.
Useless information to amaze, annoy, confuse, and/or confound your friends and family:
- By win-loss percentage, the worst on this list is .167, good for a 4-20 record (1921).
- The highest WHIP is 1.867 (1995).
- The worst ERA+ is 68 (1931, 6.22 ERA).
- That 1931 season may be among the worst of all time across MLB (under these parameters, at least). When I bumped up the Stathead query to player-seasons with at least 20 losses and an ERA of above 6.00, the only players who came back were four from the nineteenth century: Bert Inks (1895: 20 L, 6.40 ERA), Les German (1896: 20 L, 6.43 ERA), Bill Hart (1897: 27 L, 6.26 ERA), and Red Donahue (1897: 35 L, 6.13 ERA)
- Three players on this list actually logged an ERA+ better than league average: 104 (1929), 102 (1932), and 107 (1935).
All data from stathead.com
