Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Erasing the 1994 Strike: League Leaders (Part the Fourth)

Episode Date: June 11, 2020

Locked On Mariners contributor Jon Miller and D.C. Lundberg finish looking at the 1994 league leaders to see if the leaderboards may have changed if the season had been played to completion. This episode also features perhaps the most comprehensive look at the career of Steve Ontiveros in the history of podcasting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Here's your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you very much, J.M. I am indeed D.C. Lundberg, your allergy-ridden host for the day, I suppose. And this is Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, brought to you, of course, by Bilt Bar. You may download, rate and subscribe to Lockdown Mariner's on Google Podcast, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app that you personally care to use. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on Mariners podcast or any of the other wonderful programs here on the Locked-on Podcast Network

or T-L-O-P-N-R-L-L-L-O-N-R-Lopin. Follow this program on Twitter at L-O-U-U-N-R-B-R-B-E-R-G for those scoring at home. Today is a continuation of what we have been doing last week over the last month, pretty much on this program. Looking at 1994, the statistics of the individual players and seeing what those individual players may have done if the season had been played to completion. Last week, we took a look at the league leaders

in the American League and National League for hitters and National League pitching. Today we are going to cover American League pitching. And here with me, once again, to do that, is Locked-on Mariners contributor, John Miller. John, how are you doing today? I'm doing very well. Thank you so much for having me.

You are very welcome, John. Glad to have you aboard once again. And as we have been looking at, or as I have been looking at, the league leaders, the league leaders and ERA wins and strikeouts for the National League are what we covered last week. Pardon me. So we're going to do the same for the American League. And as I have been looking at the league leaders for ERA wins and strikeouts in the American League, same stats we covered last week in the National League, for the most part,

It's a lot of the same players. The American League leader in wins was the New York Yankees Jimmy Key. So we will begin with him. Jimmy Key in 1994 was in his age 33 season. He was still very effective. 17 wins, which led all of baseball. 327 ERA, 25 games started, which also led the league. And looking at his numbers, projecting them out,

he is a little bit of an interesting case. His win loss record in the aggregate that I'm using here is very good. His ERA goes up ever so slightly. He was very, very consistent. His ERA goes from 327 to 332. And his 17 and 4 record goes to 25 and 7. He gains eight more wins in 11 starts, all of which were decisions.

That's kind of unusual. That's very unusual. That is incredible. That type of win numbers are almost unheard of. When I think of Jimmy Key, I generally think of those late 80s and early 90s Blue Jays teams on which he pitched, not necessarily his tenure in New York,

and I really don't want to think about his tenure in Baltimore, which was not very successful. But going over the other numbers that I have projected out for him, in the aggregate, he pitches 241 in a third innings. You know, that's a lot. Only 14 home runs given up. 79 walks.

Okay, that's pretty good. It's 2.9 walks per nine innings. And 145 strikeouts. Remember, he was a finesse pitcher, not necessarily a high strikeout guy, although 145 is nothing to sneeze at. Certainly not for him. No, no, that would be 5.4 strikeouts per night. which is actually slightly above his real life 5.2 strikeouts per 9 in 1994.

And going over his career numbers, it's pretty much right in line with the strikeouts per 9 numbers that he had for his career. Number two wins in the American League was, there was a tie. 16 wins apiece for David Cohn and Mike Messina. We shall look at David Cohn next. And he was pitching with in 1994 the Kansas City Royals. Not a particularly strong team, although he went 16 and 5 for those Kansas City Royals, with a 294 ERA and 132 strikeouts.

Cohn much more of a strikeout pitcher than Jimmy Key was, and I've got him gaining six more wins and two more losses. So his win loss record goes to 22 and 7, and his ERA goes up 12 points to 306, and he's got almost 200 strikeouts at 194, and 74 walks, which, if I recall, is the exact same number of Jimmy Key had. No, it's fewer walks. Pardon me. In the projection, Jimmy Key has 79 walks, and Cohn has 74, although in about eight fewer

innings pitched. So pretty much right on par with each other, John. Yeah, and I do notice that Jimmy Key was second in the Salyung voting in 1994, and David Cohn won the award. But seeing as Jimmy Key has that many more wins, what does that do to it, if anything? I don't know. I mean,

Jimmy Key's whip, and will go off as real-life numbers for the award voting for obvious reasons. His whip was 1.363, while Cones was 1.072. Cohn had an ERA of 294, key of 327. The wins,

I mean, Key was pitching for a better team. The New York Yankees were very, very good in 1994, and maybe that's why the writers are candidates. Well, he's supposed to get 25 wins for those Yankees, while the Royals were not very good, yet Cohn still won 22 games for them. I guess that's what they're thinking, plus the strikeouts that Cohn had.

Yeah, you make a good point with the strikeouts. And I'm not a big strikeout guy. The way I judge pitchers for Sy Young Award voting or for anything else, are ERA, how many runs they're given up, and whip, how many runners they're allowing on base. And Cone wins in both categories for my money. Tied with David Cohn, ladies and gentlemen, with 16 wins, was Mike Musina, who went 16 and 5 for the Baltimore Orioles. He also had a 306 ERA, which was actually Cohn's projected ERA.

And in this aggregate, Musina's ERA does go up a little bit to 321. he was also pretty consistent. He gains seven more wins and two more losses for a record of 23 and 7. So in this projection, he's actually gone ahead of Cohn in terms of win-loss record. Not as many strikeouts, though, a little bit of higher whip and obviously a higher ERA, but, you know, 23 wins John. There were multiple 20-game winners, or there could have been multiple 20-game winners, had this season played out. And considering how good offense was, that's pretty impressive.

In our projection, yeah, this is looking to be, and I'll say it, the greatest season that never was. As far as the power numbers and the home run race, but then having these great pitchers, too. In terms of individual seasons, you're absolutely right, because we already covered, we've got three players potentially hitting 60 home runs. We've got multiple guys winning 20 or more games.

While the ERAs themselves may not be that impressive, aside from Greg Maddox obviously, who's Greg Maddox and needs no further explanation? Everybody's right around the three mark, which for this day and age is pretty impressive. For those power numbers, that's pretty impressive. It sure is. Number four in the American League in wins is somebody, I never would have guessed.

It is one of Mike Mustina's Baltimore teammates. It is Ben McDonald, believe it or not, who won 14 games this year. His career was later derailed due to some injury trouble. And his ERA this season was 406, whip of 3, pardon me, whip of 1.303, which is actually lower than Jimmy Keys, although Mike Donald has the higher ERA here, and not as many strikeouts. He went 14 and 7 in real life. I've got him gaining five wins and three losses to go 19 and 10.

His ERA goes down a little bit from 406 to 4, and he now has 130 strikeouts as opposed to the 94 he had in real life. His whip goes down. He was pretty consistent, although a little bit better, during this 10-game stretch, I believe. I would have never guessed Ben McDonald's fourth for wins, John. And never for that many. This would be for him kind of just a career year.

Yeah, it was. I mean, he kind of, like I said, it was kind of injuries that did him in. In 1993, he actually had an ERA of 339, which was really, really good, but he went 13 and 14. In 1995, a 416 ERA, but only 14 starts. That's kind of when injuries started to get the better of him. Then he moved on to the Milwaukee Brewers, and he had a pretty good 1996. 390 ERA, 12 and 10 for a very bad team, for a very bad team, excuse me. And then his last season was 1997 at age 29, 406 ERA, 21 starts.

It was injuries that did it to him, which is kind of a shame. Anytime a player's career has to end because of an injury, it's always a sad state of affairs because you always want to see a player go out on his own terms, don't you, John? You definitely do. Speaking of going out on one's own terms, I actually have no idea what that has to do with this, but fifth in the American League and wins, I needed a segue, and it failed, ladies and gentlemen, what can I say?

There was a tie for fifth place between Pat Henkin of the Blue Jays and the Mariners' very own Randy Johnson. And Johnson is the one I have up now, so we will talk about him next. He won 13 games for the 1994 Mariners, also a not great team. 13 and 6 was its overall record. 319 ERA, 172 innings, and 204 strikeouts in an abbreviated season. That's 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings, which is very impressive. 3.8 walks per nine innings. This is kind of where he found his control.

3.8 is a little on the high side. However, his whip was still 1.186, and he wasn't giving up very many hits. In this aggregate, I have him gaining six wins and three losses to go to 19 and 9, same number of wins as Ben McDonald, but one fewer loss. So that's a better win loss percentage. And I've got him gaining 110 strikeouts. This stretch of games, this last 9 or 10 starts, very, very good. His ERA for the season goes down 18 points all the way to 301. Strikeouts per nine innings goes from 10.7 to 11.2.

which is amazing for a starting pitcher and 314 strikeouts total in 251 and a third innings. Unbelievable numbers for the big unit. This is, yeah, just, you took words right out of my mouth. Unbelievable and very much parallels what he had done the previous season, 1993.

He won 19 and 8, had a 3.24 ERA with 308Ks. Yeah, and 1995, another semi-abreviated season was even better. 18 and 2, 248 ERA, that led the league and 294 strikeouts. And he led the league in a multitude of categories in 1995. FIP, fielding independent pitching, which reads kind of like an ERA at 208. Lowest whip in the American League at 1.045. Fewest hits per nine innings. Fewest home runs per nine innings.

Wox per nine innings was not a league leader, but it was down to 2.7, which is very respectable. 12.3 strikeouts per 9 in 1995 and a 4.52 strikeout to walk ratio. And that was his Say Young Award season. He just pitched out of his head that year. My goodness. I have always loved watching pitchers. And when you get a power pitcher like that, who you never know what he's going to do

and is just loading up the strikeouts. That's great for a team to have that many guaranteed, unproductive outs. That's actually a very good point. Like I said, I'm not huge on strikeouts, although that's a very good point that you're going to have a certain number of unproductive outs from the other team.

I never really thought of it that way, actually. Because I, to me, I mean, Randy Johnson said us is different because, yes, he was a power pitcher and he was going to rack up the strikeouts, but he had pretty good control, didn't walk all that many batters for a power pitcher,

and he could locate his slider on the outside part of the plate to a right-handed hitter who had no chance, and that was beautiful to watch to me. That was my favorite part of Randy Johnson, that backdoor slider. Absolutely a blast to watch him and blow that by. Yes, it was. He was tied with Pat Henkin with 13 wins in 1994, and I've got Henkin gaining five wins and three losses.

So his record goes to 18 and 11. ERA goes from 340 to 3-334, very, very consistent. He now has over 200 strikeouts at 210, and his whip is a little bit higher. Pat Henkin had some very, very good seasons for those Blue Jays teams, even going into the late 90s, and yet he's kind of a forgotten piece of those teams, wouldn't you say, John? And he definitely is. Yeah, very underrated pitcher for his day.

He had to pitch behind Juan Guzman, who was, light out for a few years and then completely fizzled. Jimmy Key was on those teams. The Blue Jays acquired David Cohn in 1992. Pat Hentkin, even though I think he was at least close to a Salyang Award or won a Siyang Award in 1993. No, he was not. Yeah, he was sixth in Salyang voting in 1993. And he actually won the Salyang Award in 1996, where he had 265 and two-thirds innings pitched, a 3-2-ERA. My goodness. I mean, three All-Star appearances. Maybe he wasn't as overlooked as I remember. Maybe I have to retract this. Perhaps what you might mean is he's just not as remembered as some of these other guys.

He kind of falls under the radar a little. That might be fair to say. That might be fair to say, yes. We're running up on a break, John, which means it's time for the Mariners' trivia question. And today it is this. Randy Johnson led the American League in strikeouts of 1994, as we have already mentioned. So we obviously led the team. Who was second? on the Mariners in terms of striking out hitters. More after a word from Bilt Bar. Drowning in an ocean of credit card debt. Having trouble just making the minimum payment every month.

Well, I'm sorry about that. But have you tried Bilt Bar? They're delicious protein bars made with real chocolate. They're also low sugar and low calorie. They come in many different flavors. My favorites being chocolate orange, chocolate peanut butter and chocolate raspberry, not necessarily in that order.

Give them a try. They're a great snack for someone like me who knows he should eat healthier but who won't sacrifice taste for nutrition. They would also be great for a protein boost following a weightlifting regimen or as a quick breakfast on your way out the door. Head on over to builtbar.com and compile a box

of the flavors you would most like to try or your already established favorites. Use promo code locked on to get $10 off your first order. It is so simple, gang, builtbar.com promo code locked on to get $10 off your first order. Answer to the Mariners trivia question,

ladies and gentlemen, Randy Johnson led the Mariners and the entire American League in strikeouts in 1994 with 204. Who was second on the 1994 Mariners in strikeouts? It is somebody I would have never guessed because it's a relief pitcher. Bobby Ayala,

struck out 76 hitters in 1994, and that was good for second on the pitching staff that season. And then it's actually more strikeouts pro nine innings than Randy Johnson, believe it or not. 12.1 is opposed to Johnson's 10.7. More Locked-on Mariners, maybe even after I rode a ruder my sinuses, following the following, whatever. Oh, that sucked. Now time for the second half of Locked on Mariners.

Once again, your host, D.C. Lundberg. Thank you once again, J.M. This is D.C. Lundberg. You're still stuffed up host. Pollan has not been real kind to those of us with allergies in the Spokane area the last few days. I apologize for that. Not only is it making my voice really hard to listen to, but kind of playing with my brainhead also. In any case, we are back talking about the American League pitching leaders in 1994, projecting out their stats to see what they may have done if the strike never occurred. John Miller, Lockdown Mariners contributor, has been with me all last week and today to do just that

and we have covered wins so ERA strikeouts, the only other items John, and strikeouts, I think we're just going to kind of gloss over for two reasons. A, Randy Johnson led with 204, the men in second place only had 168 and the other reason is because the first segment ran so long that we're running out of time.

In any case, Roger Clemens did have 168 strikeouts in 1994, a 285 ERA, which was good for second in the American League. We're going to kind of roll the strikeouts and an ERA talk into one, sort of. In any case, in this aggregate, his ERA does go down a little bit. Very, very consistent in this stretch as he was all season, with maybe a few more walks than he had. But his ERA goes down to 277. his strikeout total goes from 168 to 229. So he goes back into second place because we also had Hentgen with over 200, but not this many.

And his 9 and 7 record goes to 12 and 10. Again, not the greatest Red Sox team out there, but, you know, still a very, very solid season from Roger Clemens, especially given that low ERA. Definitely. And this was just kind of a down period for Clemens. And he would come out of this and had great years before this. He just had a few years where he wasn't quite the Roger Clemens that you had heard about.

1993 was one of them. After leading the American League in the ERA from 1990, 1991 and 1992, went up to 4-4-6 in 1993 his age-thirty season. 1994 was a bounce-back year for him with his real-life 285 ERA. And he finished the season very strong. I have that going down. but it was back up over four in 1995, and about three and a half in 1996,

3.63. And then when he got to Toronto, he just took off. And that's kind of the period where a lot of people think that he started to have assistance at that point, if you know what I mean? It's tough to tell with him. With Barry Bond, it's easy to tell when he started, not necessarily with Clemens, John.

Certainly not. Nope. So, as I said, we're not going to talk about strikeouts any longer because it's pretty uninteresting. So we're going to go right to ERA. And Clemens was second at 285. Cohn was third at 294. That goes up a little bit.

Mike Musina was four at 306, which also went up. And Randy Johnson was five, Jimmy Key 6, Pat Henkin, 7. We've already talked about all of those gentlemen. We have not talked about the league leader that season. And ladies and gentlemen, if you can tell me who led the American League in ERA in 1990, you have an excellent memory. John, do you remember who it is? Without looking it up, no, I did not remember who it was.

That does not surprise me in the slightest. It's kind of an answer to a trivia question because he came out of nowhere to lead the American League in ERA at age 33. It was a man named Steve Antevereos. Steve Antevaros led the American League with a 265-EARA. ERA, 27 games, 13 starts.

He was put into the rotation mid-season, and obviously he has enough innings to qualify for the ERA title. And again, just came out of nowhere. And as a matter of fact, ladies and gentlemen, in the sample size that I'm using to project out on Tavares' stats, his ERA goes down. In his last 10 or so starts of the season, I forget exactly how many I gave him. His ERA during that period was one point. So I have his season ERA going down from 265 to 236.

I have his whip going beneath 1. 0.965 whip for Mr. Onteveros, 183 in the third innings. Again, he wasn't a starter until mid-season. So the innings are not going to be there. And that's another reason why his ERA swung so wildly. And for the season, I only have him striking out 88 hitters, which is only 4.3 per 9 innings,

which is way less than your average finesse pitcher, John. It certainly is. This is a surprise season, even just seeing his leading the league in ERA, and he came out of nowhere. He was kind of a closer for Oakland and just kind of moved around, and 1993 actually played for the Seattle Mariners.

He did, actually. only 14 games. He was kind of one of those forgotten Seattle Mariners, as it were. But in 1994, he also led the American League in WIP at 1.032. And again, I had that going below 1 for the projected out season. He was an all-star in 1995 and then didn't pitch in the big leagues until 2000 at age 39. Fascinating career for Steve on Tavares. I'm assuming it has to do with arm problems, but it's just a guess.

Well, it did have some to do with arm problems. Okay. According to baseball, after playing 1990, he would down to AAA in 1991. He missed all of 1992 with an injury, then came up in AAA 1993, then went to the Seattle Mariners.

And I actually have that note here. He started that year with the Minnesota Twins and pitched in AAA. And then on August 10th, he was traded to the Mariners, where he was immediately put on the, big league roster. And from there, as we've talked about, he was with Oakland in 1994. He had that what could, even though he was 33, could have been a little bit of a breakout year. He led in both ERA and WIP, in 1995, as you had mentioned. He did make his one and only all-star team.

And from there, he just kind of vanishes. And as I'm looking at his minor league numbers, in 1996, he was in the Angel system where he pitched two games at the advanced A level. In a 1997, same system, one game at the advanced A level, and John, to me, that shouts rehab assignment. So it probably is an injury.

Yeah, it certainly sounds that way. And from there, he would have recovered where we're not quite sure to what capability yet, because in 1998, in the AAA system of Baltimore and St. Louis, he did pitch 19 games.

He did with mixed results. He was better in the Oriole system than the Cardinals system. Three, six, eight, ERA and 16 games with Baltimore. And then with the Memphis Redbirds, which is Pacific Coast Lake AAA Cardinals, three games and an eight, three eight ERA. And then he moved on to the Milwaukee Brewer System in 1999, John. Yes.

And then in 2000, we pick him up again. He's with the Colorado AAA system, where he goes 4-1 with a 2.91 ERA in eight games. He then moves on to Boston Red Sox at the Major League level. Yep. His first time being in the big league since 1995. Correct. He doesn't do spectacular.

But he made it back and nobody can take that away from him. Yeah, he made it back. He put forth the honest effort. And then his last year, his age 40 season, he's in both the Oakland and the New York Mets AAA systems. Correct. Also in 2000, he pitched for an independent league team. He pitched for the Western League Valley Vipers of Scottsdale, Arizona, an independent league team.

And I don't know if that was before or after his stint with the Colorado Rockies system. I have to assume it was before. Nine starts for the Valley Vipers, 359 ERA. And my guess is probably that the Colorado Rockies then took a flyer on him and put him in their AAA system where he did very well. Actually, let's look at his transactions. July 7th, 2000, signed as a free agent with the Colorado Rockies. That is correct. So he did start this season with the independent leagues.

And then on September 9th, the Rockies released him. The very next day, he was signed as a free agent with the Red Sox. And with the expanded rosters at that time, they put him right at the big league level. That's very fascinating to look at his career. It's a very fascinating, interesting career for Steve on Tavares. And he began 2001 in the Mets system. So that's where he began and ended up back with Oakland, I believe you said, yes, Oakland. Anybody who pitches into his 40s at any level, John, that's impressive.

That really is impressive. His career started in 1982 in the Oakland minor league system. That's before either of us were born. So he did have a long career. It's just not the typical career, and that's what's so fascinating about it. Exactly. And another point I want to make that anybody who has this long of career has to be doing something right. If you're a longtime minor leaguer and don't ever make the big leagues, that does not mean you're not a good ball player. You have to be a very good ball player in order to stick around the minors that long.

I'll also say, Antevereaux is right-handed, so it's not like he was hanging around because he was a left-handed pitcher, which there are a lot of mediocre left-handed pitches that are out there just because, they are left-handed. That does not apply to Steve Ontoveros. Certainly not. Again, very interesting career for Steve Onoferos, and we will close the program on that note. John, thank you for joining me today and last week to talk about the league leaders of 1994. Where can people find you on Twitter? It's always a pleasure, D.C. I can be found on the Twitter sphere at Seattle Pilot 69. Very good. Always a pleasure having you on the show as well. Ladies and gentlemen, there will not be a locked-on Mariners show tomorrow.

Instead, there's going to be a network-wide program broadcast across all the shows here on the Locked-on Podcast Network. We will be back on Friday, and our third episode of the week will be Saturday. Next time, Jason Hernandez from Locked-on Anaheim Ducks will join me to talk a little bit about the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft, which is something I admittedly know absolutely nothing about. So I'm going to have JD on here to help me with that one. In the interim, please remember to download rate and subscribe to Locked-on Mariners on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher Radio, or whichever podcasting app that your brainhead can think of. Follow this program on Twitter at L.O. underscore Mariners, and follow me on Twitter at D.C. underscore Lundberg. Remember, gang, no show tomorrow. We'll be back on Friday, joined by Jason Hernandez.

Until then, have a great day. And happy belated birthday, Calvin. It was on Monday. This is Joey Martin speaking for Locked-on Mariners, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Ask your smart device to play Locked-on MLB upon the conclusion of this program.