A Mystery Late Bloomer
I decided we need to play a guessing game with this one because, well, it’s New Year’s, and I just felt like it.
When I go hunting for potential Late Bloomer subjects, I run a lot of Stathead queries to give me lists of players who fit the right criteria. Most steals as a rookie over thirty years old, most saves among relievers in their forties, that sort of thing. This week, I ran a general query of pitchers from the age of thirty onward who aren’t in the Hall of Fame, and then I sorted them by various stats to see who the different leaders were. Among pitchers who fit that description, there were some pretty obvious leaders.
Most appearances? Jesse Orosco.
Most strikeouts? Roger Clemens.
Most saves? Joe Nathan.
Most wins, starts, and innings? The ageless Jamie Moyer.
You want modern stats? Most WAR? Clemens again. Best ERA+ (1,000 inning minimum)? The fabulously underrated and relatively unknown Bill Byrd of the Baltimore Elite Giants. I already did a Late Bloomers edition about him. If you want to exclude the Negro Leagues you get Kevin Brown. He barely beats out Max Scherzer, who is the leader in strikeout rate. You probably didn’t guess all of these guys, but you likely got a few of them right, and probably nodded your head when you saw the answers and said to yourself, “Yeah, that makes sense.”
Okay, time for the guessing game. Without wrecking your good karma for the new year by cheating to look this up yourself, name the non-Hall of Fame pitcher who threw the most shutouts in baseball history from the age of 30 onward. Go ahead, think about it for a bit. While you do that, here’s a lovely crackling fire to watch and listen to as you clear your mind, ponder resolutions, and consider your response.
