by Rany Jazayerli
September 13, 2000

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=770


It’s good to be back.

It’s good to be anywhere but within the clutches of the Russ Branyan Fan
Club, actually. These were no benevolent captors, let me tell you. You don’t
know pain until you’ve been forced to watch every one of Rey Ordonez’s
2,212 career plate appearances. I tried to put on a brave face, and when it
was concluded I even tried to fake nonchalance. "Is that all you guys are
capable of?" I dared them.

I immediately regretted my bravado, but that didn’t stop them from dragging
out the David Howard tapes. The horror. The humanity.

Thankfully, just as they promised me they would "get Rafael Belliard on your
ass," John Hart acquiesced to their demands and Branyan was recalled from
Buffalo. It has taken me nearly two weeks to recover from the trauma, but I
trust you understand.

And now, on with the countdown.

Just Call Him "Dazzy" Smith

When the Marlins discarded Brant Brown in a three-way trade for Chuck Smith
earlier this season, then called up the 30-year-old journeyman Smith, it was
hardly a unique event. After all, one of the pitchers he joined on the Marlins
’ staff was Joe Strong, who had just reached the majors for the first time
as well--at age 37.

But unlike Strong, who has pitched sparingly for the Fish and has a 7.32 ERA,
Smith has become one of the pivotal members of the Marlins’ staff. After
matching Randy Johnson on Sunday night in a game the Marlins would go on to
win, Smith is 4-5 with an impressive 3.47 ERA in 16 starts. Smith also has 95
strikeouts in 104 innings of work. Since 1900, only two players who debuted
at age 30 or older have struck out at least 100 batters in their first
season:


Name              Year    Age      K

Wayne LaMaster    1937     30    135
Masato Yoshii     1998     33    117
Curt Davis        1934     30     99
Henry Schmidt     1903     30     96
Chuck Smith       2000     30     95

(Categorizing Masato Yoshii as a rookie in 1998 is, frankly, an insult to the
caliber of play of Japanese baseball.)

With at least three more starts left, Smith may still pass Yoshii and rank
behind only Wayne LaMaster on the list of late-blooming strikeout pitchers.

LaMaster reached the major leagues out of desperation on the part of the
Phillies, who for much of the century were by far the worst team, year in and
year out, in all of baseball. The Phillies had finished above .500 just once
(1932) since 1917, and were in the midst of a 13-year stretch (1933-45) in
which they finished seventh or eighth (in an eight-team league) every year.
In 1937, LaMaster led the Phillies with 15 wins, but led the entire league
with 19 losses.

One of his teammates that year was Hugh Mulcahy, the only player in recorded
history whose nickname was "Losing Pitcher". The following season, LaMaster
went 4-8, 7.32 and dropped out of sight; the Phillies finished 45-105, 43
games out of first place and 24 1/2 games out of seventh! Only two teams
since 1900 (the 1916 A’s and 1935 Braves) have finished deeper in the
cellar.

The Marlins, who still have a chance to finish at .500, are certainly no
relation to the Phillies, who by the way finally finished over .500 again in
1949. (If the Phillies had lost two more games in 1932, they would have
finished under .500 for 31 consecutive years.) And Chuck Smith, whose ERA is
more than a run better than the league average, is no Wayne LaMaster.

Who does Smith resemble? Well, in 1922, a 31-year-old rookie pitcher came up
with the Brooklyn Dodgers and had an outstanding season, going 18-12, 3.70,
leading the league with five shutouts and 134 strikeouts. He doesn’t qualify
for our list above, because he had made a start for the Pirates in 1915 and
made a few appearances with the Yankees in the interim, but no one expected a
damn thing from Dazzy Vance when he was given a shot by manager Wilbert
Robinson.

And Vance was hardly finished. Beginning in 1922, Vance led the NL in
strikeouts for seven consecutive seasons, a record that is still unmatched.
He led the league in ERA three times, the last time coming when he was 39.
And in 1924, Vance had one of the most dominating seasons ever recorded by a
pitcher, going 28-6, 2.16 and winning the MVP award. That season, he struck
out a career-high 262 batters. This came in an era of lively balls and
batters choking up six inches on a bat, when pitchers averaged just 2.8
whiffss per nine innings and the entire Phillies staff recorded just 349
strikeouts.

This was the NL leader board in strikeouts that season:


Name              Team         K

Dazzy Vance       Brooklyn   262
Burleigh Grimes   Brooklyn   135
Dolf Luque        Cincinnati  86
Johnny Morrison   Pittsburgh  85
Tony Kauffman     Chicago     79

Only one other pitcher in the entire league had even one-third as many
strikeouts as Vance. Aside from Babe Ruth, who hit three times as many home
runs as the third-place finisher in 1920, 1927 and 1928, I dare you to find
another instance in which one player so thoroughly dominated his league in
any significant category.

Vance would finish his career with 197 wins, every one of them after his 31st
birthday. Only five pitchers in history won more games after they turned 31.
Vance was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1955.

That’s not to say that Chuck Smith is likely to develop into one of the most
dominant pitchers in baseball over the next ten years. But in a game in which
anything can happen, remember that not only is it possible, but it’s been
done before.