Ten pitching seasons to forget

• stevet

  +1

  Lots of fun stuff, Geoff.

  Regarding Phil Ortega:

  He was a fine athlete and had a good, naturally sinking fastball.  The Dodgers were real high on him, and also eager to have a Mexican-American star to feature for the large Mexican-American portion of their LA fanbase.  Only one problem:  Ortega was a native American (Navajo, I think) who resented being passed off as Mexican.

  Oh, and one other problem:  his pitching was terrible.  For all his talent, Ortega never mastered a breaking pitch of any sort, not even a simple old-fashioned curve ball.  He simply threw the fastball, and at the major league level, that just wasn't effective.

  He would spend his entire major league career achieving limited and fleeting success, and mostly getting shelled, while never learning to throw a curve or slider.

  Posted 1/17/2008 [reply] [flag]

  • Geoff Young

    +1

    Glad you enjoyed it, Steve. Thanks for the additional insight on Ortega. Lack of a breaking ball would explain a lot!

    Posted 1/17/2008 [reply] [flag]

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Links (11)

Lousy Pitching
Published 1/17/2008 by Geoff Young at Knuckle Curve - Baseball News
... My latest article is up at Hardball Times: “Ten pitching seasons to forget.” Two of these guys actually won the Cy Young Award at some point in their careers, which just goes to show that anyone can have a bad year. ...

AY missing from pitching worst of worst
Published 1/17/2008 by davidbloom at BaseballHappenings.com
... In THT’s bottom 1o pitching season performances, it pulled up the article and thinking A.Y. had to be there. In A.Y. , I am talking about ...

[THE HANGOVER] John Jaso And Dioner Navarro Would Make An Ideal Platoon In 2009
Published 1/17/2008 by The Professor at Rays Index
... Fossum from last season did not pitch enough innings to qualify. And if not for the 4-hit shutout, Edwin Jackson most likely is on the list (his numbers appear to just miss the cutoff). We went back and looked...We were shocked to see that Fossum and Seo only made ten starts apiece. Twenty starts total? Felt more like 50. In fact they were both out of the rotation by June. Wow. And to think the Rays were actually flirting with .500 during that time period. [The Hardball Times] ...

Bad Pitching Performances, Book and Spring Training Updates
Published 1/17/2008 by Geoff Young at Ducksnorts
... I’ve got a new article up at Hardball Times: “Ten pitching seasons to forget.” Three of these guys once pitched for the Padres. One was Mark Davis, which gave me an excuse to revisit ...

THT: Young: Ten pitching seasons to forget
Published 1/17/2008 at BBTF's Baseball Primer Newsblog
THT: Young: Ten pitching seasons to forget Ortega shells! Not only does Phil Ortega show up here as having one of the worst pitching seasons ever...he has made many an ...

Roundup - Pitcher Signings Rundown
Published 1/17/2008 by Dave Rouleau at Baseball Digest Daily
... . The parties have until January 18th to exchange figures. - Geoff Young wrote a piece for THT about the Ten Pitching Seasons to Forget . - Two major Olympic antidoping agencies ...

Blog-A-Roni: Rivers May Be Dammed By Torn ACL
Published 1/18/2008 by jason at SPORTSbyBROOKS
... • THE HARDBALL TIMES goes just a bit outside, as they list their ten worst pitching seasons. ...

Bottom of the Barrell
Published 1/18/2008 by Shyster at ShysterBall
Geoff Young at THT details the ten worst pitching seasons of all time for those pitchers who qualified for the ERA title. I am happy to report that I got to see Eric Milton pitch in person during the 2005 season -- twice -- which come in at number five on the list. At the time, I felt that I was entitled to my money back. Now I'm certain of it.

Eric Milton Was Historically Bad
Published 1/18/2008 by JD Arney <info@redreporter.com> at Red Reporter: Front Page Posts
Geoff Young has an interesting article up at The Hardball Times on 10 Pitching Seasons To Forget, and not surprisingly Eric Milton makes an appearance at number five: ...

Where Are They Now: Top Prospects of ‘98, #21-30
Published 3/27/2008 by Geoff Young at Knuckle Curve - Baseball News
... Westbrook and Gil Meche. After just one season in the minors (and only 14 starts above A-ball), Milton headed to Minnesota as part of the package that put Chuck Knoblauch in pinstripes. Milton had a bumpy rookie campaign, but then pitched reasonably well from 1999 to 2002. He missed most of 2003 due to injury and then was traded to Philadelphia after the season. Milton enjoyed one so-so season with the Phillies before moving on to Cincinnati, where he and Reds fans endured one of the worst performances ever by a starting pitcher. He rebounded somewhat in 2006 before spending ...

Razzball Historical Spotlight: Jose Lima (2000, 2005)
Published 4/24/2008 by Rudy Gamble at Fantasy Baseball Blog at Razzball
... Despite all that, he only had 4 losses to show by June 1st. June saw him ‘improve’ to a 7.11 ERA before an unexpected hot streak in July (3.79 ERA in 35 IP) endangered his second Razzball Spotlight-worthy season. Returning to form, a 6.52 August and 9.64 September boosted Lima’s final season numbers to: 5-16, 168 2/3 IP, 6.99 ERA. 1.660 WHIP, 80 Ks, 61 BBs, 31 HRs allowed This season earned Lima 6th place in worst pitching seasons ever by Geoff Young of Padres’ blog Ducksnorts ...