So how many starts are Halladay, Oswalt, Lee and Hamels going to combine to make in 2011? A lot, we all hope, but over the past five seasons there have only been two years in which all four of those guys each made 30 starts, 2008 and 2009.
Halladay and Oswalt have made at least 30 starts in each of the five seasons.
Hamels has made as many starts (98) as Halladay over the past three years and more than Oswalt (Oswalt has made 94 starts over the past three seasons), but made under 30 starts in each of his first two years in the league (2006 and 2007). Since his age 24 season in 2008, Hamels had made at least 32 starts every year.
Lee has also made 30 starts in just three of the last five years. In 2007, he strained his groin during Spring Training and didn’t pitch till May. At the end of July he was sent to the minors with a 6.38 ERA for the season. When he returned to the Indians in September, he pitched out of the bullpen. Last year he made just 28 starts as an abdominal strain kept him from making his first start of the year until April 30.
Here’s the number of starts each of the four pitchers has made in the past five seasons:
| 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | AVG | |
| Halladay | 33 | 32 | 33 | 31 | 32 | 32.2 |
| Oswalt | 32 | 30 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 31.6 |
| Hamels | 33 | 32 | 33 | 28 | 23 | 29.8 |
| Lee | 28 | 34 | 31 | 16 | 33 | 28.4 |
| Group total | 126 | 138 | 129 | 107 | 120 | 124 |
So, over the past five years, the group has made an average of 124 starts a season. 2007 was the year in which they made the fewest starts (107) and 2009 the year of the five in which they made the most (138).
Over the last three years, the group has averaged 131 starts.
All four members of the group have started at least 28 games in each of the past three seasons. Lee started 28 games in 2010 after missing part of the early season with his abdominal muscle. In 2009, Oswalt was struggling with problems with his lower back at the end of the season for an Astros team that wound up going 74-88 and finished 17 games out. After throwing to a 5.81 ERA over his last five starts, Oswalt didn’t make a start after September 15 and wound up with just 30 for the year. The last time that Oswalt made less than 30 starts in a season was 2003.
The Phillies traded Sergio Escalona to the Astros for 23-year-old second baseman Albert Cartwright. The lefty Escalona made 14 appearances for the Phillies in relief in 2009, throwing to a 4.61 ERA and a 1.24 ratio. He was designated for assignment on Saturday to make room for Romero on the 40-man roster. Cartwright saw his first action at Double-A in2010, hitting 229/289/271 over 154 plate appearances.
January 11th, 2011 on 8:06 pm
ok. So if they have 131 starts, can you apply their wins/loss percentage to that number of starts and tell us how many games we might win from the Phantastic Phour in 2011?
January 12th, 2011 on 9:32 am
Looks like “kit” was the wrong word to use in the headline. Or “trackbacks” need to be turned off or something.
Anyway.. DM, you know pitcher W/L is so subjective. Hamels had a great year last year and barely broke .500.
January 12th, 2011 on 9:50 am
Yeah, I think kit is the problem here.
I’m with Jim on the W/L thing. It’s hard to tell. Hamels pitched pretty well for the Phils last year and the team only went 18-15 in the games that he started, mostly cause the team didn’t score a lot of runs with him pitching. For the record, though, the Phils went 50-28 when Halladay, Hamels or Oswalt started last year. 22-11 in Halladay’s starts, 18-15 for Hamels, 10-2 for Oswalt.
January 12th, 2011 on 4:36 pm
Yeah, I know that W/L is really a little crazy, but Eric does such amazing stat-things I thought it just might make him run off to a cave and emerge (after seeing his shadow) with some astounding formula that would take into account variables in the W/L records.
Having said that, Hamels may have pitched pretty well, but his career W/L is not lousy because of last year alone. His record is not all that good for someone with the team behind him that he has. I’m thinking Carlton. Um, like maybe ’72? Now there is a guy who had an excuse for a lousy record. (I admit, Lefty’s was the single best pitching performance of any pitcher I have ever seen, anywhere, anytime, period, no discussion.)
January 12th, 2011 on 4:51 pm
I agree about the record for Hamels. In 2009 he just wasn’t that good, but there is something really odd about the way the Phillies never score any runs for him. It will be interesting what happens to him this year. He’s not really cheap anymore, making $9.5 million in ’11. So he’s working his way out of the great-for-someone-who-doesn’t-make-a-lot-of-money category and into the category where he needs to be great compared to everyone.