The other day I told you about my conversation with BP’s Jonah Keri when he mentioned that pitchers are generally more successful when they have at least two of the following three traits: a good strikeout rate, a good walk rate, or a good groundball to flyball ratio. So, I did some research and found the pitchers who qualified for the ERA title that succeeded in two out of those three categories. But, since I have been developing a fondness for bullpen construction and because I like doing research, I decided that I would also find out which pitchers, who didn’t qualify for the ERA title, were successful in two of those three categories.

So, to clarify – this section is only dealing with pitchers who pitched less than 162 innings last season. I set the minimum innings for the pitchers at 50, to cut out any guys who might skew the numbers because of their small sample size. Granted, 50 IP isn’t a ton, but I think it will give us numbers that are less likely to be straight-up flukes. I used stats from The Hardball Times and combined stats for pitchers who switched teams during the season.

First, let’s look at strikeout rates. There are 218 pitchers who pitched more than 50 innings but less than 162 innings, so we will only be looking at roughly the top 10% for each category.

Top 20 Non-Qualified MLB Pitchers Based on K/9

Brad Lidge, B.J. Ryan, Rudy Seanez, Francisco Rodriguez, Joe Nathan, Kyle Farnsworth, Brian Fuentes, Ugueth Urbina, Mike Wuertz, Kerry Wood, Mike Gonzalez, Jay Witasick, Francisco Cordero, Jose Valverde, Billy Wagner, Brian Bruney, Ron Villone, Juan Rincon, Rafael Betancourt, Scot Shields and Al Reyes.

Not too many surprises there. It’s mostly filled with top-notch closers. At the top, you’ve got Lights Out Lidge with his MLB-leading 13.11 K/9 and at the bottom of the elite group, there’s Al Reyes and his nothing-to-complain-about 9.62. Sure, there are some guys that might make you say, “Who?” but for the most part it’s the guys you’d expect.

As an interesting side note, if the cutoff was set at 30 IP, instead of 50, the top 10% would have included guys like Bobby Jenks, Damaso Marte, Julio Santana, Scott Dohmann, Greg Aquino, Chris Ray and Roberto Novoa.

Now, same deal, but this time we’re looking at walk rate.

Top 20 Non-Qualified MLB Pitchers Based on BB/9

Roy Halladay, Ben Sheets, Jae Seo, Carl Pavano, Todd Coffey, David Cortes, Chris Reitsma, Todd Jones, Aaron Cook, Julio Mateo, Luis Ayala, David Riske, Trevor Hoffman, David Bush, Bob Howry, Justin Duchscherer, Justin Speier, Chad Cordero, Mariano Rivera and Curt Schilling.

This group ranges from Halladay’s 1.14 BB/9 to Schilling’s 2.12. And folks, it’s time to celebrate…there’s finally a Mariner on one of these lists! Second, remember how I mentioned in the Part 1 that, “…it seems as though relief pitchers, in general, have a higher GB/FB ratio than starting pitchers, but also give up more free passes.”

Now, we’ll see about the groundball part, but look at the list of non-qualified pitchers with good walk rates. Of the 20 pitchers listed, seven of them are starters. Now, I know that’s not the majority or anything, but when you consider that there’s only about 70 starters in the non-qualified group of 218, it’s interesting that 7 made the top 20 for lowest walk rate.

Ok, now on to ESPN’s stats for the GB/FB numbers. Let’s see the group of non-qualified pitchers who made batters kill the most worms!

Top 20 Non-Qualified MLB Pitchers Based on GB/FB

Sergio Mitre, Felix Hernandez, Todd Williams, Aaron Cook, Chien-Ming Wang, Ryan Dempster. Roy Halladay, Chad Qualls, Kameron Loe, Scott Schoeneweis, Brad Thompson, Kirk Saarloos, Rick White, Terry Mulholland, Ryan Drese, Todd Coffey, D.J. Carrasco, J.P. Howell, Todd Jones and Scot Shields.

Now remember, in the first part of this study I didn’t only look at the top tier of pitchers in each category. I also sorted out all the pitchers who were above average according to the numbers on Baseball Prospectus. So, to be fair, let’s see how many pitchers were above average in these three categories. We’ll still be limiting our study to pitchers with more than 50 innings, but less than 162.

And, again, here are the league averages from Baseball Prospectus, for reference:

American League pitchers with an above-average strikeout rate: B.J. Ryan, Francisco Rodriguez, Joe Nathan, Francisco Cordero, Juan Rincon, Rafael Betancourt, Scot Shields, Kelvim Escobar, Ambiorix Burgos, Mike MacDougal, Mariano Rivera, Andy Sisco, Matt Thornton, Justin Duchscherer, Daniel Cabrera, Neal Cotts, Rich Harden, Kiko Calero, Curt Schilling, Huston Street, Felix Hernandez, Joaquin Benoit, Erik Bedard, Chad Orvella, Tom Gordon, Eddie Guardado, Cliff Politte, J.C. Romero, Seth McClung, Justin Speier, Doug Brocail, Jason Frasor, Brendan Donnelly, Jorge Julio, Kevin Gregg, Scott Downs, Roy Halladay, Ted Lilly, Keiichi Yabu, Scott Schoeneweis, J.J. Putz, J.P. Howell, Ervin Santana, Mike Timlin, Alan Embree, Miguel Batista, Brandon McCaarthy, Orlando Hernandez, Jimmy Gobble, Danys Baez and Wade Miller.

National League pitchers with an above-average strikeout rate: Brad Lidge, Rudy Seanez, Brian Fuentes, Mike Wuertz, Kerry Wood, Mike Gonzalez, Jose Valverde, Billy Wagner, Al Reyes, Ryan Dempster, Matt Wise, Akinori Otsuka, Scott Eyre, Derrick Turnbow, Scott Linebrink, Oliver Perez, Dan Wheeler, Trevor Hoffman, Russ Springer, Ryan Madson, Ben Sheets, Gary Glover, Guillermo Mota, Marcos Carvajal, Jim Brower, Tyler Walker, Roberto Hernandez, Duaner Sanchez, Jason Isringhausen, Hector Carrasco, Todd Jones, Robinson Tejeda, Yhency Brazoban, Mike DeJean, Chad Cordero, Ezequiel Astacio, John Grabow, Jason Vargas, Lance Cormier, David Weathers, Byung-Hyun Kim, Adam Eaton, Randy Keisler, Glendon Rusch, LaTroy Hawkins, Randy Wolf, Kevin Correia, Chad Qualls, Aaron Fultz and Giovanni Carrara.

Players who pitched in both leagues and had an above-average strikeout rate: Kyle Farnsworth, Ugueth Urbina, Jay Witasick and Ron Villone.

American League pitchers with an above-average walk rate: Roy Halladay, Carl Pavano, Julio Mateo, David Riske, David Bush, Bob Howry, Justin Duchscherer, Justin Speier, Mariano Rivera, Curt Schilling, Shigetoshi Hasegawa, Doug Waechter, Mike Timlin, Rafael Betancourt, Brandon McCarthy, Kevin Brown, Scott Baker, Joe Mays, Lance Carter, John Wasdin, Eddie Guardado, Alan Embree, Felix Hernandez, Chien-Ming Wang, James Baldwin, Jeremi Gonzalez, Terry Mulholland, Brendan Donnelly, Dustin Hermanson, Ricardo Rodriguez, Chris Spurling, Cliff Politte, Joe Nathan, Aaron Small, Kiko Calero, Travis Harper, Huston Street, Jorge Julio and Matt Guerrier.

National League pitchers with an above-average walk rate: Ben Sheets, Jae Seo, Todd Coffey, David Cortes, Chris Reitsma, Todd Jones, Aaron Cook, Luis Ayala, Trevor Hoffman, Chad Cordero, Chris Hammond, Brad Halsey, Jose Acevedo, Sunny Kim, Billy Wagner, Odalis Perez, Dan Wheeler, Mike Hampton, Brian Moehler, Zach Duke, Brad Thompson, Brian Meadows, John Thomson, Ryan Madson, Chad Qualls, Julian Tavarez, Elmer Dessens, Jose Valverde, Matt Belisle, Kent Mercker, Ezequiel Astacio, Gary Glover, Scott Linebrink, Aaron Fultz, Al Reyes, Woody Williams, Randy Wolf, Brad Lidge, Jeff Fassero, Adam Eaton, Aaron Heilman, Claudio Vargas, Russ Springer, Derrick Turnbow, Tim Stauffer, Geoff Geary, Shawn Estes, Glendon Rusch and Rudy Seanez.

Pitchers who pitched in both leagues and had an above-average walk rate: John Halama, Pedro Astacio, Roman Colon and Darrell May.

American League pitchers with an above-average groundball rate: Felix Hernandez, Todd Williams, Chien-Ming Wang, Roy Halladay, Kameron Loe, Scott Schoeneweis, Kirk Saarloos, Terry Mulholland, D.J. Carrasco, J.P. Howell, Scot Shields, Mike MacDougal, Brian Shouse, Scott Downs, Mariano Rivera, Doug Brocail, J.J. Putz, Sidney Ponson, Steve Kline, J.C. Romero, Daniel Cabrera, Bob Wickman, Kevin Brown, Mike Wood, Ricardo Rodriguez and Carl Pavano.

National League pitchers with an above-average groundball rate: Sergio Mitre, Aaron Cook, Ryan Dempster, Chad Qualls, Brad Thompson, Rick White, Todd Coffey, Todd Jones, Dan Kolb, Scott Erickson, Matt Belisle, Jason Jennings, Bradon Looper, Chris Reitsma, Jason Isringhausen, Akinori Otsuka, Zach Duke, Derrick Turnbow, Jeff Fassero, Mike DeJean and Julian Tavarez.

Pitchers who pitched in both leagues and had an above-average groundball rate: Ryan Drese and Jay Witasick.

So, how many non-qualified pitchers were above average in at least two categories? 61...

American League pitchers who were above average in at least two of the three categories: Joe Nathan, Scot Shields, Mariano Rivera, Justin Duchscherer, Daniel Cabrera, Kiko Calero, Curt Schilling, Felix Hernandez, Eddie Guardado, Cliff Politte, Doug Brocail, Justin Speier, Brendan Donnelly, Jorge Julio, Huston Street, Roy Halladay, Scott Downs, Scott Schoeneweis, J.J. Putz, J.P. Howell, Mike Timlin, Alan Embree, Brandon MacCarthy, Mike MacDougal, Kevin Brown, Carl Pavano, Chien-Ming Wang and J.C. Romero.

National League pitchers who were above average in at least two of the three categories:  Brad Lidge, Rudy Seanez, Jose Valverde, Billy Wagner, Al Reyes, Ryan Dempster, Akinori Otsuka, Derrick Turnbow, Scott Linebrink, Dan Wheeler, Trevor Hoffman, Russ Springer, Ryan Madson, Ben Sheets, Gary Glover, Jason Isringhausen, Todd Jones, Mike DeJean, Ezequiel Astacio, Adan Eaton, Glendon Rusch, Randy Wolf, Chad Qualls, Aaron Fultz, Todd Coffey, Chris Reitsma, Aaron Cook, Zach Duke, Brad Thompson, Matt Belisle, Julian Tavarez and Jeff Fassero.

Pitchers who pitched in both leagues and were above average in at least two of the three categories: Jay Witasick.

So, there you have it. There were 311 pitchers that pitched more than 50 innings in the big leagues last season. 93 of them were above average in at least two of the following three categories: K/9, BB/9 and GB/FB. As I stated last time, obviously a pitcher can succeed without being above-average in two of the three categories. No one’s going to argue that B.J. Ryan (who, you’ll notice didn’t make the list) wasn’t a successful pitcher last season. However, being above average in at least two of those three categories simply makes it easier for the pitcher to be successful. Just think about it like this: Having a good K/9 is necessary because the less batters you allow to put the ball in play, the better the chance you have of them not scoring. Having a good BB/9 is necessary because the fewer batters you give first base to, the fewer chances they have to score. And having a good GB/FB ratio is necessary because less runs are produced on ground balls than on fly balls. That being said, I don’t believe that the three categories are necessarily of equal value. However, looking into that is for another day. And, I know I mentioned that I was thinking about doing one of these posts for minor leaguers, but there’s just so freaking many of them! Plus, they switch teams and leagues so frequently that it’s really overwhelming. I may still attempt it sometime this winter, but don’t hold your breath. If you like these posts and find them as interesting as I do, you’re better off looking forward to a (Not So) Successful Pitchers post and a Successful Pitchers Wrap Up post. Those are more likely to make it onto this fine site. And, if you got this far…thank you and Happy Holidays!