About Geoff Expertise Huge baseball trivia lover! I will attempt to answer anything you can think of when it comes to major league baseball. I have a large reference library of all things baseball. Try to stump me!
Question i noticed tim wakefield has a decision in every start (something like 16-10 in 26 starts) but curt shilling is only 8-6 in 22 starts. What's the average percentage of getting a decision versus total number of starts in a season and is there any sort of record of getting a decision in every start or getting the fewest decisions in a season?
Answer Hi Mark,
Thanks for writing.
The percentage of decisions the starting pitcher gets has gradually declined over the years as things like complete games have faded away.
will show you how in 2007 teams starting pitchers have done. For instance, San Diego starters are 50-41 in their 139 games. They have decisions in 65% of their games. Red Sox starters are 70-44 in 140 games. They have decisions in 81% of their games. So it varies team to team, league by league.
In the old days, starters often pitched complete games almost every time out. Lots of starters back then would get a decision in every game. There are no "records" on such things, nor on fewest decisions per start.
My favorite stat related to this though is in 1901 Cy Young pitching for the Red Sox, had a record of 33-10. He pitched in exactly 43 games In his 41 starts he was 31-10. In his two relief appearances he was 2-0. He pitched 38 complete games.
