How Low Can You Go?

Pirates hurler John Van Benschoten may be the worst pitcher in team history.

Well, the Pirates are well on their way to tying the Phillies record of consecutive losing seasons at 16 this season. Matt Morris soldiered on in a Pirate tradition I wrote of earlier in making Pittsburgh his last stop as he checked out of the majors this season with a 0-4 record and an impressive 9.67 ERA. Why impressive? Due to some shoddy defense behind him he also allowed 7 unearned runs. But what truly gives me pain is who his replacement was, John Van Benschoten. I’m quite sure John is a great guy, and is probably the best hitting pitcher the Pirates have. And maybe, just maybe, he’ll turn out to have a fine major league career. But as of now, he’s the worst pitcher in the history of the Pirates.

Best, worst, always, never, these words are bandied about far more than is necessary or prudent. But I think John Van Benschoten has a pretty firm grip on worst pitcher in Pirate history. As of today, his current major league stats are thus: 1 win, 11 losses, ERA of 8.58, 20 games, 14 starts, 71 1/3 innings pitched, 92 hits, 74 runs, 68 earned runs, 52 BB, and 48 Ks. I will accept no argument that these stats aren’t bad, because if these aren’t bad, what is? I’ve scoured Pirate history to come up with a few players who are at least close to him in terms of stats. Sure, there are a few guys with ERAs of infinity, but the sample size just isn’t big enough. Anyone, and I do mean anyone, can get some major league batter out if they are just out there long enough. Doesn’t matter how bad the pitch, or how well the batter crushes it, circumstances will turn some of those into outs, as long as you have fielders behind you.

Bill Phillips pitched for the 1890 Pirates. This was the year of the Players League, and almost all of the good players went there. Bill made his debut that year, and in 10 games, of which he completed 9, he went 1-9 with a 7.57 ERA. The 1890 Pirates went 23-113 and finished 66 ½ games out of first that year. A teammate of his, Crazy Schmit also went 1-9 but had an ERA of only 5.83. So, clearly Bill wasn’t that much worse than even one of his contemporaries.

That’s too far back, you say. Pitching stats from the pre-WWII era aren’t really comparable to today. Well, how about Roger Bowman? He pitched for the 1953 and 1955 Pirates (both last place ball clubs), and was consistently bad. He was primarily a reliever, but did start 2 games both years. He was picked up off of waivers from the Giants in May of 1953, and his career stats are 0-7 with an ERA of 5.60. He was at least competent in pitching mop-up duty in 1953, posting an ERA of 4.82, and was left-handed, which is always nice.

Well, maybe John’s mixed in some great outings among some stinkers? He has, as long as “some” means exactly one. September 10^th, 2004. John had only appeared in 4 games, all losses, and had not surrendered less than 4 runs in any outing. Then he went out and dominated the Astros, surrendering only 1 run in 8 innings! This outing took a lot out of him, though, since his very next appearance his arm troubles began in his final start and loss of the season. Going into that game, John’s ERA was a career low 5.08. Two shoulder surgeries later, he returned to the majors in 2007. He was bad in every outing, the Pirates losing every game, except on June 27 against the Florida Marlins. He pitched 4 innings, walked 5 and allowed only 2 runs. Jim Tracy, in his best managerial move ever, yanked him and the Pirates held on to win. His recall in 2008 has seen him pitch in one winning game again, a 13-1 blowout win over the Mets on April 30^th.

So, who did I get to see this past Saturday as the Pirates visited the Nationals? You know who. And while I had this idea for writing about him, what did old Johnny do? He had his first ever scoreless appearance. John’s ERA this season, in 3 1/3 innings, is a sparkling 4.91. The Pirate fan in me can say only one thing about this.

He’s turned the corner!