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Bob Welch Former A's & Dodgers Pitch Dead at 57


MagicBird

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OAKLAND -- Bob Welch, a former Cy Young Award winner and the last Major League pitcher to win at least 25 games in a season, died Monday night of a heart attack at the age of 57.

Welch, a two-time All-Star who posted a 27-6 record as the Cy Young Award winner on the Athletics' 1990 American League championship team, died in Seal Beach, Calif.

Full article:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/former-as-dodgers-pitcher-bob-welch-dies-at-57?ymd=20140610&content_id=79094774&vkey=news_mlb

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When Welch made his comeback from alcoholism in the late 80's, he was an inspiration for many addicts, both in and out of baseball.

I read his autobiography, and it was superb.

Five O'Clock Comes Early

Oo

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That's too bad. Too young.

It would be interesting to see how today's Cy Young voters tackled his 1990 season. He was credited with 27 wins, tied for most since Denny McLain's 31 in 1968, but didn't have outstanding other numbers. His ERA+ was only 125, his strikeout rate was nothing special, his walk rate nothing special, and his bullpen support was magnificent. By rWAR he was the 44th-best pitcher in baseball, and by fWAR he was 45th of 55 qualifiers. Roger Clemens out-rWAR'd him 10.6 to 3.0, a total, epic rout.

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That's too bad. Too young.

It would be interesting to see how today's Cy Young voters tackled his 1990 season. He was credited with 27 wins, tied for most since Denny McLain's 31 in 1968, but didn't have outstanding other numbers. His ERA+ was only 125, his strikeout rate was nothing special, his walk rate nothing special, and his bullpen support was magnificent. By rWAR he was the 44th-best pitcher in baseball, and by fWAR he was 45th of 55 qualifiers. Roger Clemens out-rWAR'd him 10.6 to 3.0, a total, epic rout.

I always remembered him as a power arm but the K totals are pretty low. Now I'm thinking he may have been one of those hard sinkerballer types, but I can't find any info on his GB rate. One thing he did do was keep a decent HR/FB rate.

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I always remembered him as a power arm but the K totals are pretty low. Now I'm thinking he may have been one of those hard sinkerballer types, but I can't find any info on his GB rate. One thing he did do was keep a decent HR/FB rate.

Look here under Ratio Pitching: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/welchbo01-pitch.shtml

He was more of a fly ball pitcher until late in his career, when he became about even fly ball/ground ball. As you can tell from the video of his famous K of Reggie Jackson, he went up in the zone with his fastball early in his career. Lasorda compared him to Don Drysdale.

His K rates look low to us, but it was a different era. He never lead the league but a few times placed between 5th and 10th in the league in Ks with a K rate under 7.1/9. One year he finished 5th at 5.9.

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Look here under Ratio Pitching: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/welchbo01-pitch.shtml

He was more of a fly ball pitcher until late in his career, when he became about even fly ball/ground ball. As you can tell from the video of his famous K of Reggie Jackson, he went up in the zone with his fastball early in his career. Lasorda compared him to Don Drysdale.

His K rates look low to us, but it was a different era. He never lead the league but a few times placed between 5th and 10th in the league in Ks with a K rate under 7.1/9. One year he finished 5th at 5.9.

Interesting, thanks. I guess he pitched in some big parks as well. Drysdale would definitely be a power arm so that part of my memory seems correct.

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