Minor League Workhorses: 1946-1950
OK, first off, let me explain what got me thinking about this. Give yourself a good long look at this list:
Pitcher T Age Year Club League Class G IP W L H BB SO ERA Bill Kennedy L 25 1946 Rock. Mt. C.P. D 41 280 28 3 149 101 456 1.03 Virgil Trucks R 21 1938 Andalusia A-F D 38 273 25 6 143 125 418 1.25 Eddie Albrecht R 20 1949 Pine Bluff C.S. C 58 332 29 12 260 150 389 2.60 Bob Schultz L 22 1946 Fulton Kitty D 34 221 19 10 148 148 361 3.62 Larry Jackson R 21 1952 Fresno Cal C 43 300 28 4 250 144 351 2.85 Bob Upton R ? 1950 Jcksnvl. G.C. C 44 326 25 16 258 173 346 2.68 Mike Conovan L ? 1952 Jackson Kitty D 47 281 20 12 212 224 345 3.46
What is that, you ask? Well, that’s the list of the top seven single-season strikeout performances in modern minor league history (since 1920). It’s a very interesting little list, don’t you think?
I compiled it a few weeks ago, as the first step in putting together what I had imagined to be an article focusing on the greatest statistical achievements by minor league players. But as soon as I had put this list together, I took a look at it and said to myself, woah, wait a minute—what’s up with this?
Two things struck me:
1) Of the top seven strikeout seasons by pitchers in minor league history, six occurred between the years of 1946 and 1952, and the other one was just a few years earlier.
2) And check out the workloads of these very young pitchers! These are innings pitched and pitch count totals that are beyond inconceivable today, for any pitcher, major league or minor league, at any age.
It suggested that while the article on the most extreme minor league statistical achievements remains a fun idea—and one I hope to pursue at some point—a more interesting exploration would be a combination of two things: first, just what the norm was of top workhorse minor league pitchers in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and second, how that norm has been modified in the years since.
So what’s presented here is the first in what will be a long (slow!) series of articles, recurring periodically, exploring the top-end usage patterns of pitchers in the minor leagues. Over time, we’ll see how it changed and discuss why, as well as the wisdom,—or lack of it—of those changes.
So this is the first chapter of what will be an extensive series. This time, it’s the five-year period of 1946 through 1950.
The Top 10 Innings Leaders
I recorded the top 10 pitchers in innings pitched in each minor league classification each season. Averaging the stat lines of each of those top 10 innings-workload achievers, this is what we get:
(EP = Estimated number of pitches)
Class AAA: Year G CG IP W L H BB SO ERA EP 1946 39 24 280 18 15 262 78 157 2.69 4303 1947 39 21 277 17 15 286 77 117 3.39 4290 1948 38 18 251 16 13 268 93 122 3.93 4062 1949 41 23 282 21 13 271 98 147 3.35 4448 1950 41 21 283 19 14 270 102 133 3.46 4447 Avg. 40 21 275 18 14 271 90 135 3.35 4310 Class AA: Year G CG IP W L H BB SO ERA EP 1946 38 ? 252 19 9 227 80 132 2.42 3874 1947 36 20 253 18 11 238 77 132 2.83 3909 1948 40 17 244 16 14 239 102 115 3.53 3938 1949 38 17 239 16 11 242 85 99 3.57 3785 1950 40 18 244 19 11 220 98 148 3.15 3908 Avg. 38 18 246 18 11 233 88 125 3.09 3883 Class A: Year G CG IP W L H BB SO ERA EP 1946 33 19 235 17 9 213 93 177 2.76 3805 1947 37 18 245 17 11 230 89 133 3.05 3872 1948 38 19 245 17 13 235 106 152 3.48 4013 1949 36 18 245 16 13 223 100 140 3.11 3916 1950 34 21 250 16 13 236 105 132 3.34 4025 Avg. 36 19 244 17 12 227 99 147 3.15 3926 Class B: Year G CG IP W L H BB SO ERA EP 1946 34 23 243 16 12 225 106 161 3.44 3972 1947 39 22 263 17 12 268 117 165 4.06 4381 1948 44 22 276 19 14 276 102 146 3.69 4417 1949 43 24 284 20 12 268 101 143 2.90 4471 1950 40 23 281 17 16 266 105 107 3.35 4399 Avg. 40 23 269 18 13 261 106 144 3.48 4328 Class C: Year G CG IP W L H BB SO ERA EP 1946 39 26 277 21 11 264 80 199 2.71 4348 1947 42 25 288 21 12 265 104 193 3.03 4582 1948 45 25 297 21 15 299 117 166 3.45 4817 1949 42 25 283 21 12 274 111 193 3.23 4603 1950 43 28 300 23 13 294 125 223 3.81 4963 Avg. 42 26 289 21 12 279 107 195 3.26 4662 Class D: Year G CG IP W L H BB SO ERA EP 1946 41 27 292 21 14 254 106 230 2.93 4656 1947 44 25 295 23 12 255 96 203 2.91 4593 1948 44 26 291 23 11 266 108 186 3.04 4635 1949 41 28 295 21 13 263 114 187 2.85 4700 1950 41 23 281 21 12 270 116 196 3.32 4606 Avg. 42 26 291 22 13 262 108 200 3.01 4638
The far right column applies Tangotiger’s Basic Pitch Count Estimator (3.3*PA + 1.5*SO + 2.2*BB), where (PA = 3*IP + H + BB) to each stat line. To put this into perspective (as we examined here), since about 1990 the very top end of workloads for major league ace pitchers has been in the 4,000 to 4,200 pitch range. And in the modern era, it is completely unheard of for a minor league pitcher at any level to come close to such a workload.
But in the 1946-50 period, it was obviously routine for pitchers to reach and far exceed it. Bear in mind that these figures represent the averages of the top 10 pitchers at each level; the highest individual workloads (which we’ll see below) were significantly greater than that.
One of the things we’ll examine as we move forward in history (in the installments to come) is precisely when the change toward the modern workload pattern began, and how smoothly (or not) it progressed. Interestingly, the 1946-50 period doesn’t even indicate the beginning of a downward shift; at every level, the workloads of top pitchers were very stable, and if anything, inching upward.
The Minor League Reality of 1946-1950
It’s extremely important to understand just what the minor leagues were, and were not, in this era. Certainly, one of the essential purposes of the minor leagues was to develop talented young prospects for major league teams. Every major league team had at least some form of a minor league “system” in place by 1946, and a few teams—the Yankees, the Dodgers, and the Cardinals in particular—had vast minor league organizations, far more extensive than those operated by any team today.
But even in those farm systems, developing young talent was not the only purpose, and not necessarily the primary purpose, of a minor league team. Making money was at least as important as developing talent, and the best way to go about making money was by winning games. Minor league baseball was a fiercely competitive enterprise on the field, because win-loss performance was a critical factor in the team’s bottom-line performance.
And, of course, in 1946-50, most minor league teams weren’t major league farm clubs. They were independent. Many employed some players contracted to major league organizations (on essentially a subcontracting basis), but many teams and entire leagues were completely unaffiliated with the majors. Virtually all minor league teams placed every bit the priority on winning games that major league teams do today.
Pitching to Win
Thus, while many players employed in the minor leagues were kids in their late teens or early 20s, “prospects” with the possibility of major league careers ahead of them, many more were not. Many more were career minor leaguers, or former major leaguers continuing to play, often for many, many years, at the minor league level. Minor leaguers in 1946-50 were likely younger than their major league counterparts, but the age difference is even greater today. A high proportion of minor league players in those days—indeed, typically the best players in any league, especially at the lowest classifications—were in their late 20s or early 30s and occasionally in their late 30s or early 40s.
The minor leagues in this period were a vast enterprise, the most extensive they would ever be. (They would soon shrink disastrously, as we’ll see in future installments.) In 1947, for example, there were two major leagues comprising 16 teams; meanwhile there were 52 minor leagues, comprising more teams than I care to count—somewhere between 300 and 400. The Sporting News Baseball Guide covering that year (Baseball Guides are my primary source for all of this data) handles the major leagues in pages 1 through 216, and then the stats for the minor leagues (stats which are, of course, not nearly as detailed and comprehensive as those of the majors) consume pages 217 through 564. (I don’t seek your sympathy here, as I assure you things like this are a labor of love, but it’s worth comprehending just what an ambitious task it has been to search and compile this data—there were a lot of minor leagues in those years!)
In such a minor league world, developing young talent was attended to, of course. Not only the fully affiliated or outright-owned major league farm clubs had such an interest; one of the major sources of ongoing revenue for independent minor league teams was the sale of home-grown stars to higher classifications. The San Francisco Seals’ sale of Joe DiMaggio to the New York Yankees in 1934 (for a mountain of cash, plus several players, plus the one-year-delayed delivery of DiMaggio) is a very prominent example of a standard business procedure of independent minor league teams until well into the 1950s. Thus “shredding the arm” of a young pitcher through overuse was in the interest of no one (though teams may well have had little reason to be concerned for a pitcher’s productivity several years down the road).
But minor league teams were primarily focused on winning games, and their use of pitchers reflected that. Young pitchers weren’t handled nearly as carefully as they would be in later years, and it would be ridiculous to suggest that the use of young pitchers in workloads such as these was anything but foolhardy in the context of preparing them for future major league careers.
The Very Top Workhorses: 1946-1950
All right, in closing for this time, let’s examine the heaviest workloads among minor league pitchers in this period. As suggested by the Pitch Count Estimator, here are all the minor leaguers from 1946 through 1950 who threw 4,900 or more pitches in a season:
Pitcher T Age Year Team Class G CG IP W L H BB SO ERA EP Eddie Albrecht R 20 1949 Pine Bluff C 58 30 332 29 12 260 150 389 2.60 5553 Bob Upton R ? 1950 Jcksnvl. C 44 30 326 25 16 258 173 346 2.68 5549 Melvin Fisher R ? 1949 Florence B 55 25 351 27 12 352 97 160 2.77 5410 Roy Parker L 24 1950 Pampa C 49 30 297 27 12 307 188 256 4.55 5371 William Stanton R ? 1948 Miami C 54 22 339 20 12 326 117 158 3.40 5312 John Henry R ? 1949 Bis.-Dg. C 43 22 286 15 18 375 163 169 5.88 5219 Merlin Williams R ? 1946 Lima D 47 30 307 22 18 312 132 275 3.43 5207 Virigil Feeney R ? 1946 Lima D 48 27 303 19 19 335 133 247 4.16 5207 Horace Benton R ? 1948 Rck. Mt. D 41 32 339 28 10 340 88 160 3.66 5202 Harry Helmer L ? 1948 Rck. Mt. D 46 28 292 26 10 250 196 268 3.54 5196 Noel Oquendo ? ? 1949 Fitzgerald D 41 27 297 17 19 280 171 224 4.06 5141 Leo Golcoechea L ? 1948 St. Pete. C 44 25 294 21 16 255 178 259 2.69 5120 M. Echevarria R ? 1950 Mexicali C 49 28 328 28 12 288 73 333 2.74 5099 Chet Johnson L 32 1950 S. Fran. AAA 45 22 310 22 13 316 132 164 3.51 5084 Charley Schanz R 30 1949 Seattle AAA 43 26 321 22 17 324 106 158 3.25 5067 Alton Brown R 25 1950 Roa. Rap. D 45 29 317 28 11 269 133 204 2.38 5064 Guy Fletcher R ? 1949 Seattle AAA 42 26 318 23 12 317 113 162 3.28 5059 M. O'Coine R ? 1950 Thib. C 47 30 313 24 13 162 200 208 3.19 5045 Bobo Holloman R 22 1947 Macon A 45 20 294 18 17 298 160 171 3.49 5031 Fred Smith R ? 1947 Lufkin C 46 23 308 20 12 300 144 131 3.18 5028 Bill Evans R 31 1950 Sac. AAA 41 24 317 15 22 293 131 95 3.44 4968 John Hofmann R ? 1947 Visalia C 43 22 276 19 14 252 182 263 4.79 4960 George Fultz R ? 1950 Gns.-DeL. D 47 26 318 18 19 305 110 121 2.77 4941 George Fultz R ? 1946 Gnsvl. D 39 26 283 11 22 262 172 215 3.56 4935 Lewis Hester L ? 1948 Reidsville C 44 27 301 25 13 298 124 185 3.11 4923 Pinky Woods R 33 1948 Hllywd. AAA 44 16 279 15 20 303 167 161 4.52 4922 G. T. Walters R ? 1950 Crowley C 45 28 283 30 7 225 183 245 3.15 4918 Clarence Jaime R ? 1950 S. Bern. C 40 26 289 20 13 320 123 215 4.24 4916 George Koval R ? 1946 DeLand D 45 24 306 20 20 270 133 173 3.22 4911 Harold Jackson R ? 1950 McAllen C 41 18 284 16 15 390 102 163 6.21 4904 R. Brockwell R ? 1948 St. Pete. D 44 20 276 17 16 250 198 171 4.17 4903 John Marshall R ? 1949 Brem. B 47 28 289 22 14 262 166 174 3.27 4900
By way of perspective, the Pitch Count Estimator indicates that no major league pitcher has come close to throwing 4,900 pitches in a season since Phil Niekro in 1979. The 5,500-pitch level of Albrecht and Upton has been reached in modern times only in the most heavily worked seasons of Niekro, Nolan Ryan, Wilbur Wood and Mickey Lolich.
The only major leaguer in 1946-50 who managed it was Bob Feller in 1946. No other major league pitcher in those years reached 5,000 pitches in a season.
I don’t know how old most of these pitchers were, because most never appeared in the majors, and so I have no resource at my disposal that includes their birth year. A few of those whose ages we do know were young, but not all. It is worth noting that none of these pitchers—the most heavily worked in the entire minor leagues over a five-year period—achieved significant success in the major leagues, if they made it to the majors at all.
In a few weeks, we’ll see how these performances compare with those of the minor league workhorses of 1951-1955.