John Fulgham: The Best Pitcher Who Never Was

It is pretty rare nowadays for me to stumble across a quality major league player who I've never heard of, especially for players from recent decades. However, that is exactly what happened last night. In continuing to review Keith Hernandez's career, I took a look at the 1979 Cardinals, a team for whom he won the National League MVP. I noticed they had a young pitcher by the name of John Fulgham who had had a very solid season, going 10-6 with a 2.53 ERA in 146 innings. I then discovered he was a rookie that season, at age 23. Despite his numbers he did not receive a single vote for National League Rookie of the Year, an award won by Rick Sutcliffe.

Generally speaking, Fulgham is not a well-remembered major leaguer; a quick Google search did not turn up very much. Most of what has been written about him on the Internet regarded his supposed 39-pitch complete game on August 17, 1979, which if true would have been a major league record (it was not). Otherwise, these articles mostly just mention that Fulgham was a promising young starter whose career was cut short by a torn rotator cuff (an injury whose onset apparently produced a scuffle with Keith Hernandez).

In doing some more digging, however, I believe that no starting pitcher who was as good as Fulgham ever had so brief of a career. First, let's look at Wins Above Replacement. According to Baseball-Reference, Fulgham had 3.5 WAR in his rookie season, and 1.4 in 1980, for a total of about 5.0. As the table below shows, of all starting pitchers since 1901 with 5+ WAR in their first two seasons combined, only George Kaiserling, who pitched exclusively in the short-lived Federal League, also failed to pitch a third season:

Greinke and Kershaw: An Historic Duo

The Los Angeles Dodgers clinched the NL West last night, behind a one-hit shutout by Clayton Kershaw. This caps what has been a simply incredible season for the Dodgers pitching duo of Kershaw and Zack Greinke. These two pitchers are the first pair of qualifying starters to post a 170 ERA+ for the same team since Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte on the 2005 Houston Astros, and just the eighth to do so since 1893 (including the 1907 Chicago Cubs, who had three pitchers accomplish this feat). They are also the first pair with 7+ WAR apiece since Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee for the 2011 Philadelphia Phillies, and the 18th since 1920. The last pair of Dodgers starters to do this was Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax in 1964. Even more impressively, they are the only pair in the modern era to ever post WHIPs of less than 0.900 (Henry Boyle and Charlie Sweeney of the 1884 St. Louis Maroons are the only others to pull this trick). 

Sabes vs. Sandy

This post can be considered an addendum to this and this.

Just an observation regarding the careers of Sandy Koufax and Bret Saberhagen:

This table shows Koufax's WAR for each of his twelve seasons (through his final, age 30 season) and Saberhagen's WAR for his first twelve seasons (through his age 31 season):

Koufax	Saberhagen
10.7	9.7
10.3	8.0
8.1	7.3
7.4	5.5
5.7	5.1
4.4	3.8
2.1	3.6
1.5	2.7
1.3	2.2
1.1	2.0
0.9	1.5
-0.3	1.5

As you can see, Koufax wins out for each of the top six seasons. However, Saberhagen is best for each of the bottom six. Overall, thus, Koufax totals 53.2 WAR and 30.7 WAA in 2324 1/3 IP; Saberhagen totals 52.6 WAR and 33.6 WAA in 2227 2/3 IP.

For their careers, Koufax went 165-87 with 53.2 WAR in 2324 1/3 IP, while Saberhagen went 167-117 with 59.1 WAR in 2562 2/3 IP. These totals are not terribly different. Nonetheless, Koufax received 86.9% of the Hall of Fame vote in 1972 and was inducted on the first ballot; Saberhagen received just 1.3% (7 votes) in 2007.

Wilbur Wood: A Hall of Fame Case

Wilbur Wood had a brilliant though relatively brief career as a pitcher during the 1960s and 1970s. Utilizing the knuckleball, Wood was able to reach starts and innings totals not seen in decades. However, his career was derailed early in 1976, when a ball off the bat of Ron LeFlore shattered his kneecap. Wood was unable to pitch the remainder of the year, and he pitched just two more ineffective seasons before being forced to retire. He was just 36 in his final season, practically youthful for a knuckleballer. Despite this sudden end to his career, Wood was still able to post some remarkable numbers. In 17 seasons, he posted a win-loss record of 164-156, with 57 saves. He made 651 appearances, 297 of them starts and the other 354 in relief. He posted a 3.24 ERA and a 114 ERA+ in 2684 innings pitched, totaling 52.1 Wins Above Replacement as a pitcher. Read on to see why Wilbur Wood should be enshrined in Cooperstown:

Bret Saberhagen: Greg Maddux with Injuries

To most, Bret Saberhagen was a "very good" pitcher. He had a lifetime record of 167-117, and struck out 1715 batters in 2562 2/3 innings. He won Cy Young Awards in both 1985 and 1989, a World Series MVP with the Royals in 1985, the SN Comeback Player of the Year in 1987 and 1998, and pitched a no-hitter in 1991. He is arguably the greatest pitcher in the history of the Kansas City Royals, and also had good seasons with the Mets in 1994 and with Boston in the late '90s. Despite these accomplishments, however, most people would not consider him to be close to the Hall of Fame, mostly due to his relatively low career totals. The BBWAA voters agreed, as he received just 1.3% of the vote in 2007, and as a result dropped off the ballot in his first year. Read on to learn more about Saberhagen's career.

Sand-tana?

Johan Santana's recent career-threatening shoulder surgery brings up a very valid question: if indeed his career is over, how will he be remembered? At his best he was the most dominating pitcher in the game, winning two of three Cy Youngs while being robbed of a third. In more recent years, he has been one of the biggest question marks in baseball, averaging just 161 innings between '09, '10, and '12, and missing all of '11 and '13. This paradox brings to mind the abrupt ending to another lefty's career, Sandy Koufax.