Favorite Orioles stat ever

[Just Regular]

37 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Koufax, on the other hand, made 9 starts and a relief appearance in Sept./Oct. 1965, pitching to a 1.51 ERA.   His 9 starts included 6 complete games, one of which he lost after pitching 10.2 innings.   
 

There’s a reason Koufax had to retire at age 30.    Walter Alston absolutely abused him.   

I guess you'd have to put the Astros back in the NL to have the effect, but in an alternate universe it would have been fascinating to see how Cole, Verlander, Buehler, Ryu, Greinke and Kershaw would have been deployed this August/September if the second place NL finisher had the same postseason as this year's Orioles.  I'm pretty sure Ryu wouldn't have missed a couple weeks with a strained neck in that case.

The wildcard does give immediate thrills to the start of each postseason but for the best players on the best teams, it kind of makes for seven months of spring training and one month (or week in the Dodgers case) of an extreme rollercoaster.  

I'll be curious to see what kind of playoff structure comes next - if it straight mimics the NFL if/when MLB gets to 32 teams, or if they find a way to curate something for even the super teams to fight over in late September.

[mdbdotcom]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

 

There’s a reason Koufax had to retire at age 30.    Walter Alston absolutely abused him.   

Koufax had arthritis in his pitching elbow. He retired because he was afraid he would lose the use of his left arm.

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

Koufax, on the other hand, made 9 starts and a relief appearance in Sept./Oct. 1965, pitching to a 1.51 ERA.   His 9 starts included 6 complete games, one of which he lost after pitching 10.2 innings.   
 

There’s a reason Koufax had to retire at age 30.    Walter Alston absolutely abused him.   

Did Koufax take a lot of heat for retiring after a season where he won 27 games?  Thinking about Andrew Luck and the negative comments from his early retirement.

[Redskins Rick]

24 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Did Koufax take a lot of heat for retiring after a season where he won 27 games?  Thinking about Andrew Luck and the negative comments from his early retirement.

 

40 minutes ago, mdbdotcom said:

Koufax had arthritis in his pitching elbow. He retired because he was afraid he would lose the use of his left arm.

Koufax had this to say back in 2009

Quote

But he had chronic arthritis in his pitching arm, and he was afraid that if he kept playing baseball, eventually he wouldn’t be able to use his left hand at all. “In those days there was no surgery,” he said much later. “The wisdom was if you went in there, it would only make things worse and your career would be over, anyway. Now you go in, fix it, and you’re OK for next spring.”

 

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, mdbdotcom said:

Koufax had arthritis in his pitching elbow. He retired because he was afraid he would lose the use of his left arm.

Correct.  But I’m saying the arthritis probably resulted from/was accelerated by the way Alston pushed him.    

[LookinUp]

6 hours ago, Natty said:

The Rays used 9 pitchers in last nights playoff game. 

The Orioles used 4 pitchers total in winning the 1966 World Series. 

Great stat, but I'm still partial to 2,632.

[mdbdotcom]

34 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Correct.  But I’m saying the arthritis probably resulted from/was accelerated by the way Alston pushed him.    

In 1964 he jammed his pitching arm while diving back to second base to beat a pickoff throw. He was fine for his next two starts, but the morning after his second start he couldn't straighten his arm. The team doctor diagnosed "traumatic arthritis," a form of osteoarthritis caused by a traumatic injury. The doctor told him right then he would not have a long career. Some days his elbow blew up to the size of his knee. 

I'm guessing Koufax wanted to pitch as much as he could while he still could. Maybe Alston sped up the problem, maybe it didn't.

After losing his final game to Palmer in the second game of the '66 World Series, reporters asked him what would have happened if his outfield hadn't committed the errors that allowed the O's runs to score. "We'd still be playing," was his response.