Seems like we ought to have a place to talk about random statistical oddities and weird plays. I know we do some of that in the monthly gamethreads, but more threads are better so I'm not putting this there.
I was following the Cubs game today and pondering the plight of Jeff Samardzija - who, while not great today, has generally pitched terrificly this season and has no W's to show for it (and the Cubs are now 1-8 in his starts, he got a ND in the lone W). So off to B-Ref I go to find out how rare it is for a pitcher to pitch as well as Samardzija has to go this long without a W. Turns out that going back to last season, he's now gone 12 consecutive starts w/ 3ER or fewer - yet has failed to get a W, which is the 2nd longest such streak since 1914. And to start a season he's tied for the longest such streak (Whitey Ford also had 9 straight starts of 3ER or fewer w/o a W to open 1966). Samardzija has a sub-2 ERA over the first 11 games of this streak - and you have to scroll pretty far down that list to find another ERA that low. Samardzija could be the poster boy for the baseball stats 101 discussion of why W's are a crappy way to measure pitcher success - this is quite a remarkable run of shit luck for Samardzija.
I was following the Cubs game today and pondering the plight of Jeff Samardzija - who, while not great today, has generally pitched terrificly this season and has no W's to show for it (and the Cubs are now 1-8 in his starts, he got a ND in the lone W). So off to B-Ref I go to find out how rare it is for a pitcher to pitch as well as Samardzija has to go this long without a W. Turns out that going back to last season, he's now gone 12 consecutive starts w/ 3ER or fewer - yet has failed to get a W, which is the 2nd longest such streak since 1914. And to start a season he's tied for the longest such streak (Whitey Ford also had 9 straight starts of 3ER or fewer w/o a W to open 1966). Samardzija has a sub-2 ERA over the first 11 games of this streak - and you have to scroll pretty far down that list to find another ERA that low. Samardzija could be the poster boy for the baseball stats 101 discussion of why W's are a crappy way to measure pitcher success - this is quite a remarkable run of shit luck for Samardzija.
