Superduperswingmen (Part 4: 1970-2008)
This series has tipped the THT cap in honor of the Swingman, the pitcher who pivots from the starting rotation to the bullpen and back. This pitching role eschews the comfort zone of specialization, yet emerges as something of a specialist itself, simply because not every pitcher has the flexibility demanded by this double-duty assignment. The Swingman is too often an unsung hero, making a greater contribution to team success than his individual stats might suggest, due to his capacity to handle tasks that would otherwise require two or more pitchers to fulfill.
The term Swingman traditionally has been applied to any pitcher who frequently works as both a starter and a reliever, but here we’re recognizing the most prolific of these practitioners. We define a Superswingman as:
{exp:list_maker}A pitcher who appears in 40 or more games in a season
Among those 40 games, at least 15 must be starts and at least 15 must be relief appearances {/exp:list_maker}A pitcher who presents more than one such seasons in his career earns the exalted title of Superduperswingman.
Previously we’ve examined the periods of 1900-1930, 1930-1950, and 1950-1970. Now we conclude the journey with profiles of every Superduperswingman from the 1970s until the present day. Certainly, this era—particularly the last decade or two—as seen far greater specialization of starter versus reliever roles than ever before, and thus the Swingman pattern has become far less common than at any time in the past 100 years. Yet its practical necessity and value remains, and the Superduperswingman, while a rarer specimen than in the past, is by no means extinct.
He was never quite a star, exactly, but May was a real fine performer, versatile and durable and darn effective for a long time. Maybe I was misperceiving, but it seemed to me that May wasn’t properly appreciated for how good he was. His personality was bland; May was a solid, quiet, hard worker, the sort who’s happy to remain in the background, but his talent deserved some foreground.
With his Superswingman seasons occurring at ages 24 and 35, bracketing the extensive heart of his career, the arc of May’s lifetime usage pattern vividly stands as an example of the manner in which good-but-not-great pitchers were deployed in that era. As he entered the majors, May worked quite a bit of long relief, and as he developed was given starts more frequently, until in his peak seasons was a full-time starter. Then in his decline phase, May was redeployed back into the Swingman role, and toward the end was more and more a full-time reliever.
Nowdays one frequently hears Earl Weaver credited with the concept of breaking in highly valued pitching talent in the long relief role, and gradually working them into the regular starting rotation. While this is something Weaver has advocated, it’s hardly a practice original or unique to him. Many, many good pitchers all around the majors were brought along in this manner in the 1960s and 1970s and earlier, and the practice of easing a starter back into the bullpen past the age of 30 was common in this period as it had been for many decades.
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 1969 CAL 24 43 25 4 0 18 7 2 10 13 180 142 20 66 133 3.44 100 1980 NYY 35 41 17 3 1 24 13 3 15 5 175 144 14 39 133 2.46 159
The Rudy May usage-mode arc perfectly applies to the two following careers as well.
Barr was a big, strong guy, yet he didn’t throw especially hard. Still, looking strictly at Barr’s exceedingly low K/IP rates, one who never saw him pitch might easily be deceived into thinking that Barr was an extreme soft tosser, but that wouldn’t be accurate either.
Instead, Barr combined a nothing-special fastball with extraordinarily good control of a hard slider and curve, and an exceptionally aggressive pitching mindset: He was going to throw strike one, and then he was going to throw strike two. There was no point in attempting to work the count against Barr and wait for him to come in; he was coming in right away. Barr was relentlessly focused on resolving the at-bat, win or lose, with an economy of pitches.
A pitcher has to really trust his stuff (and the defense behind him) to be successful with that approach, and for several years Barr certainly was. Beginning at the age of 29, Barr’s velocity would decline enough that his hits-allowed rates got rather scary. But even when he was less than effective, Barr was a pitcher presenting a singularly confident approach, and win or lose, his outings were a lot of fun to watch.
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 1972 SFG 24 44 18 8 2 26 13 2 8 10 179 166 16 41 86 2.87 123 1974 SFG 26 44 27 11 5 17 5 2 13 9 240 223 17 47 84 2.74 139
Sort of a right-handed version of Rudy May, Pattin was another who quietly delivered strong results in any role he was asked to fulfill, a much better pitcher than his near-absence of fame would suggest. And just like May’s, Pattin’s K/BB ratio was consistently solid.
One of my favorite bits in Ball Four is when Jim Bouton notes several times that Pattin could do a terrific Donald Duck voice (the funniest reference: “his great routine is where he has Donald reaching orgasm”). The world needs more people who can do a terrific Donald Duck voice.
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 1975 KCR 32 44 15 5 1 29 16 5 10 10 177 173 13 45 89 3.25 119 1976 KCR 33 44 15 4 1 29 19 5 8 14 141 114 9 38 65 2.49 142
Rasmussen never figured to be destined for stardom, but it appeared as though he was on the way to a more successful career than the one that transpired. Ted Simmons, his catcher in St. Louis, figured it this way:
Rasmussen came with a fastball and a pretty good slider, and there for a while he had some success with just those two pitches. He didn’t have a third pitch, though. He didn’t have a change-up, and after a while the hitters will figure you out if you’re just throwing hard and hard, unless your fastball’s 97 and your slider’s 91 or something.
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 1976 STL 24 43 17 2 1 26 9 0 6 12 150 139 10 54 76 3.53 100 1979 SDP 27 45 20 5 3 25 11 3 6 9 157 142 9 42 54 3.27 107
Here we see Shirley and Rasmussen both turning in Superswingman seasons with the 1979 Padres. Manager Roger Craig, in his brief two-season stint as the San Diego skipper, was obviously a believer in the value of the role; in ’79 he also deployed Bob Owchinko in 20 starts and 22 relief appearances.
In Craig’s later very successful run as manager of the Giants, he readily rotated several of his pitchers from starting assignments to the bullpen and back again, including Scott Garrelts, Don Robinson, Atlee Hammaker, Mike LaCoss and Kelly Downs.
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 1978 SDP 24 50 20 2 0 30 10 5 8 11 166 164 10 61 102 3.69 89 1979 SDP 25 49 25 4 1 24 13 0 8 16 205 196 15 59 117 3.38 104 1982 CIN 28 41 20 1 0 21 6 0 8 13 153 138 17 73 89 3.60 102
The sinker-slider purveyor Camp had put together back-to-back outstanding seasons as the Braves’ ace reliever in 1980-81, under manager Bobby Cox. But when Joe Torre took over as Atlanta manager in ’82, he switched Camp to Superswingman mode, and got solid, though not spectacular, results.
All of which, of course, is completely secondary to the towering achievement in Camp’s career.
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 1982 ATL 29 51 21 3 0 30 20 5 11 13 177 199 18 52 68 3.65 103 1983 ATL 30 40 16 1 0 24 4 0 10 9 140 146 16 38 61 3.79 103
He was six-foot-five and 180 pounds, and McWilliams did his best to take advantage of his angular elbows and knees with a “dips and doodles” herky-jerky motion. He was also an extraordinarily fast worker.
His career was rather quintessentially journeyman, but he did put together back-to-back first-rate seasons as a full-time starter with the Pirates in 1983-84. McWilliams’ total of four Superswingman seasons was the most by any pitcher since Murry Dickson achieved five in the 1940s/’50s.
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 1982 ATL-PIT 28 46 20 2 2 26 6 1 8 8 159 158 12 44 118 3.84 98 1986 PIT 32 49 15 0 0 34 11 0 3 11 122 129 16 49 80 5.15 75 1988 STL 34 42 17 2 1 25 12 1 6 9 136 130 10 45 70 3.90 89 1989 PHI-KCR 35 48 21 3 1 27 6 0 4 13 153 154 5 57 78 4.11 88
A solid, unspectacular sinker-slider southpaw who was best known for—how shall I put this—let’s just say he wasn’t about to land any modeling contracts.
Smith’s 1985 Superswingman deployment, taking place in his rookie year, was the typical Swingman dynamic, in that he was in and out of the starting rotation over the course of the season. But the 1989 experience was something else again, and not just for the weirdness of going 1-13 with an ERA+ of 103. Over the first half of that year, Smith was strictly a starter with the Braves, and with a weak-hitting last place team he was getting pounded to the tune of 1-12 in 17 starts with a 4.45 ERA. Then he was traded to the Expos, who used him strictly in relief (in middle relief, not as a LOOGY or a closer), and Smith was extremely effective, putting up a 1.50 ERA (236 ERA+) in 48 innings, but with a won-lost record of just 0-1.
Outside of these two seasons, Smith was used almost entirely as a starter, making just four other relief appearances in 11 years.
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 1985 ATL 24 42 18 2 2 24 3 0 9 10 147 135 4 80 85 3.80 100 1989 ATL-MON 28 48 17 0 0 31 10 2 1 13 147 141 7 52 93 3.49 103
So, just to make this clear, this wasn’t the Greg Harris who was a right-handed pitcher in the 1980s and 1990s; this was the Greg Harris who was a right-handed pitcher in the—no, wait.
Um, this was the Greg Harris who was mostly a reliever, but also made about 100 starts in his career … no, that doesn’t help either. All right, this wasn’t the Greg Harris whose career won-lost record was well below .500, despite the fact that his career ERA+ was over 100—aw, crap.
The heck with it. Maybe Bobby Jones and Bobby Jones, Bob Sadowski and Bob Sadowski, and Hal Smith and Hal Smith can help figure it out.
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 1987 TEX 31 42 19 0 0 23 14 0 5 10 141 157 18 56 106 4.86 93 1991 BOS 35 53 21 1 0 32 15 2 11 12 173 157 13 69 127 3.85 112
“Dr. Death” was a good pitcher for an amazingly long time, and among the most flexible performers in history: Of his 21 seasons in the major leagues, Darwin had just four in which he was deployed only as a starter (1981, 1991, 1993, and 1994), and only one in which he was strictly a reliever (1989).
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 1988 HOU 32 44 20 3 0 24 9 3 8 13 192 189 20 48 129 3.84 86 1990 HOU 34 48 17 3 0 31 14 2 11 4 163 136 11 31 109 2.21 168 1992 BOS 36 51 15 2 0 36 21 3 9 9 161 159 11 53 124 3.96 107
Speaking of good, versatile pitchers who lasted forever …
“Flash” was a terrific, durable Swingman in several different seasons, including the two we see here and a few others in between. Gordon also had some good years as a full-time starter, and then over the long second half of his career he’s been effective as a closer and as a setup man. His lifetime major league totals include 203 games started and 346 games finished, 18 complete games and 158 saves.
Gordon’s fastball was never great, but his curve was, in hard/sharp and slow/soft varieties. He’s been a minor star, but a singular talent, and one of the more memorable players of his era.
Being invoked in the title and as part of the plot of a popular novel—a popular horror novel, no less—is hardly something you can say about many ballplayers; I’m quite sure it’s a status unique to Gordon. My take on Stephen King’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is pretty much the one I have of most of the Stephen King books I’ve read (and I’ve by no means read even most of them): I just loved the writing and the development of the characters and plot through the first half or so of the narrative. But once the supernatural mumbo-jumbo starts to crop up, King kind of loses me. I guess I’m just not a horror genre kind of guy.
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 1989 KCR 21 49 16 1 1 33 16 1 17 9 163 122 10 86 153 3.64 107 1997 BOS 29 42 25 2 1 17 16 11 6 10 183 155 10 78 159 3.74 125
The sort of pitcher who isn’t really good, but who’s nevertheless useful as a reliable innings-eater, Blair offset his very low strikeout rate with an even lower walk rate.
Blair is notable for being one of the rare white Willies. African-American major leaguers with this first name include Aikens, Banks, Crawford, Davis, Greene, Harris, Horton, Kirkland, Mays, McCovey, McGee, Norwood, Randolph, Smith, Stargell, Tasby, Upshaw and Wilson. Since 1947, their white American counterparts have been limited to the likes of Blair, Bloomquist, Eyre, Fraser, Jones, Mueller and Ramsdell. It’s no contest.
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 1993 COL 27 46 18 1 0 28 5 0 6 10 146 184 20 42 84 4.75 101 2000 DET 34 47 17 0 0 30 8 0 10 6 157 185 20 35 74 4.88 96
A big, strong guy who threw very hard and racked up lots of strikeouts, Sanders never developed an effective off-speed pitch, and was unable to break through as a consistently successful pitcher. He was pretty much the 1990s, right-handed version of Dick Stigman.
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 1996 SDP 27 46 16 0 0 30 6 0 9 5 144 117 10 48 157 3.38 119 1997 SEA-DET 28 47 20 1 1 27 15 2 6 14 140 152 30 62 120 5.86 77
Mulholland, your more-or-less generic soft-tossing lefty with fine control, was extraordinary in two ways beyond his pitching: He had a phenomenal pickoff move that strangled the running game, but was also a lousy fielder, committing 51 errors and compiling a career fielding percentage of .907, compared to a league average of .954.
He strung together a few solid years as a full-time starter, then significantly lost effectiveness as he passed the age of 30. It was Mulholland’s re-invention of himself in the Swingman role that gave his career a second wind, and he would just go on and on, not throwing his final pitch until he was 43. He wound up with 20 years in the majors, just three in which he was strictly a starter and two strictly as a reliever; of his 685 appearances 48.5 percent were in the starting role and 51.5 percent out of the bullpen.
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 1999 CHC-ATL 36 42 24 0 0 18 7 1 10 8 170 201 21 45 83 4.39 102 2000 ATL 37 54 20 1 0 34 14 1 9 9 157 198 24 41 78 5.11 90
One of the better knuckleballers in history, Wakefield is compiling one of the most interesting careers of all time. Into his 40s he’s still going strong and shows little sign of slowing down.
In an era in which specialization of pitching roles has increasingly become the norm, Wakefield has had not one but two extended phases in which he’s been deployed as a full-time starter, almost never appearing in relief. But smack in the middle of his career, coming off a year in which he was 17-8 in the starter role, Wakefield in 1999 was suddenly shifted by Red Sox manager Jimy Williams into an old-fashioned Superswingman mode. He continued to be deployed in this manner for four straight years, even as Joe Kerrigan and then Grady Little took over as his manager, before Little moved him back into the full-season rotation in 2003.
Wakefield matched Larry McWilliams with four Superswingman seasons, the most in the modern era.
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 1999 BOS 32 49 17 0 0 32 28 15 6 11 140 146 19 72 104 5.08 99 2000 BOS 33 51 17 0 0 34 13 0 6 10 159 170 31 65 102 5.48 93 2001 BOS 34 45 17 0 0 28 5 3 9 12 169 156 13 73 148 3.90 116 2002 BOS 35 45 15 0 0 30 10 3 11 5 163 121 15 51 134 2.81 162
Another who has defied the modern preference for strict specialization. Escobar has done a little bit of everything, working as a regular starter, a closer, a middle reliever and of course a Swingman.
Perhaps befitting a pitcher who’s done everything, Escobar has featured every sort of fastball there is (four-seamer, two-seamer, split-finger, and cut), plus the curve, plus the change.
Escobar’s performance in the ALCS against the White Sox in 2005 was quite unusual: He appeared in two games in relief and recorded five strikeouts each time, yet took the loss in both games.
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 2000 TOR 24 43 24 3 1 19 8 2 10 15 180 186 26 85 142 5.35 95 2003 TOR 27 41 26 1 1 15 12 4 13 9 180 189 15 78 159 4.29 110
Adams’s status as a Swingman is rather peculiar. As of June 2001, he’d appeared in 363 major league games—every single one of them in relief. But facing some injury issues in his starting staff, Dodgers manager Jim Tracy placed Adams in the starting rotation, and left him there for the entire season; Adams didn’t make another bullpen appearance in 2001.
Adams then signed with the Phillies as a free agent, and there manager Larry Bowa deployed him strictly as a starter through the season’s first half. But in late July, after 19 starts, Adams was 4-7 with a 5.00 ERA, and Bowa shifted him to the bullpen—exclusively. Adams wouldn’t start again that season, nor in any other; his final 170 major league games were all as a reliever.
The mid-career change in role, and then back again, was the sort of thing that had been seen for decades. But the absolutism of Adams’s deployment each way was something that was never seen until the modern day.
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 2001 LAD 28 43 22 0 0 21 10 0 12 8 166 172 9 54 141 4.33 92 2002 PHI 29 46 19 0 0 27 10 0 7 9 137 132 9 58 96 4.35 89
A consistently mediocre innings-eater for years as a starter, Tomko found himself deployed in 2006 along the lines of Terry Adams: He was a regular starter who was yanked from the rotation in midseason, never to return. But in 2007, both with the Dodgers and Padres, Tomko was used in true traditional Swingman mode, actually “swinging” back and forth over the season. Alas in 2007 Tomko was decidedly ineffective in both roles.
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 2006 LAD 33 44 15 0 0 29 2 0 8 7 112 123 17 29 76 4.73 95 2007 LAD-SDP 34 40 19 0 0 21 9 0 4 12 131 149 18 48 105 5.55 80
Batista never has been a star, but a solid, durable, consistent performer in any role he’s been asked to fulfill over the past decade. However, his disastrous performance this year at the age of 37 suggests that the end may be nigh.
Batista’s exceptional versatility could hardly be better illustrated than by this factoid: Through the 2008 season, he’s appeared in 474 major league games, exactly one-half (237) as a starter and one-half in relief. He’s been a rotation starter, a spot starter, a long reliever and a closer. One imagines that if asked to grill the hot dogs, operate the scoreboard and sing the national anthem, Batista would have calmly and competently gone about that as well.
Year Team Age G GS CG SHO GR GF SV W L IP H HR BB SO ERA ERA+ 2001 ARI 30 48 18 0 0 30 6 0 11 8 139 113 13 60 90 3.36 139 2008 SEA 37 44 20 0 0 24 9 1 4 14 115 135 19 79 73 6.26 67
Mulholand nearly did it again in 2004 at the age of 41. 39 games pitched, 15 of them starts.