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:

Some Random Baseball Thoughts (9/23/2015)

• Robinson Cano is going to be a Hall of Famer. His next hit will be his 2000th, becoming just the 25th second baseman to reach that plateau. He should be able to quickly move up both the lists for hits and RBI (he's closing in on 1000) among second basemen over the next few seasons. He's already 9th all time in home runs at the position, as well as 7th in OPS (3000+ PA). Lastly, his 55.2 career WAR already puts him in the company of other Hall of Fame second basemen, and I would expect he still has some good years left in him to add to that total.

Reggie Smith: A Hall of Fame Case

Reggie Smith is one of the most underrated players in baseball history. A seven-time all-star, Smith received just three votes when he appeared on the Hall of Fame ballot in 1988. An analysis of his career reveals that he deserved far more than that. Head below the fold to find out why.

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:

Darrell Evans was a Better Hitter than Wade Boggs

The title of this post seems pretty ridiculous, doesn't it? How in the world could Evans even be close to Boggs offensively? Just look at their triple slash lines:

Off To A Great Start: Austin Jackson

Most of the attention surrounding the Detroit Tigers this year has revolved around the trio of Cabrera, Fielder, and Verlander. However, perhaps no player has been more important to the team than Austin Jackson. He is truly having a remarkable breakout season at age 25, hitting at a .314/.397/.514 clip and leading the AL in triples with 8. Although he spent some time on the DL earlier in the year, he has still managed to put up 4.2 WAR according to b-r.com, and is on pace for about 5.9 at season's end. Somewhat surprisingly, he had already put up 4.8 WAR in each of his first two seasons, primarily due to his center field defense. This gives him three seasons at the start of his career with 4+ WAR, something only ten other players have ever done. Read on to see the list:

Underrated Player: Wilson Betemit

Yankee fans may remember Wilson Betemit, who played first base part time for the team in 2008. Since then, he has bounced around the AL Central, playing for the Royals, White Sox and Tigers, and this season is projected to be the starting DH for the Baltimore Orioles. To be honest, the O's might be better off moving him to third and making Mark Reynolds the DH, given Reynolds's noted defensive struggles, although Betemit isn't much better. Anyways, I wanted to look at Betemit today because I feel that he truly is underrated as a platoon player. Read on to see the proof.