Friday, September 16, 2011

Pinch Runs

On Wednesday, the Tigers extended their win streak to 12 games with a come-from-behind victory over the White Sox.  Down 5-2 in the 9th, a pair of pinch-hit home runs tied it up.  In the 10th, Victor Martinez hit a one-out double after which a pinch runner (Will Rhymes) was inserted and scored the winning run on a Carlos Guillen single.

This got me interested in pinch runs: those instances where a run is scored by someone other than the player who reaches base.  I've never heard the specific instance of a pinch runner scoring referred to so I'm not sure if the term "pinch run" is a real one but for the rest of this post I will assume that it is.

Who were the greatest pinch runners?  And on the other side of the coin, what players missed out on the most runs by being pinch run for?  Using the available Retrosheet data, I examined all games with play-by-play data between 1950-2010.

Here is a graph of the number of pinch runs during this time period.  Rather than the raw number of pinch runs, I've listed Pinch Runs per Team to account for the increase in the number of teams.  The lower numbers pre-1955 can be attributed to the lack of complete play-by-play data for those years.  The two major dips are caused by strike-shortened season.  Overall, it seems the number of pinch runs are gradually declining.  



Most Pinch Runs
The following list contains the players that scored the most pinch runs, made up primarily of fast guys with long careers who played before 1980.  I'm not exactly sure why pinch runs have decreased over time.  Perhaps because the addition of pitchers to the active roster has limited the number of bench players?  I'm really not sure.

PlayerPinch RunsYears
Matt Alexander
89
1973-1981
Otis Nixon
69
1983-1999
Miguel Dilone
56
1974-1985
Dick Schofield
51
1953-1971
Sandy Alomar
51
1964-1978
Al Weis
49
1962-1971
Allan Lewis
44
1967-1973
Ted Martinez
43
1970-1979
Gene Stephens
42
1952-1964
Sammy Esposito
42
1952-1963
Gerald Williams
42
1992-2005


Highest % Pinch Runs (Min 10)
These players are sorted by the percentage of career runs which were pinch runs.  Fast guys with short careers make up the majority of the list.  I find the top 4 particular interesting in that these players never scored a single run by reaching base themselves.  Herb Washington had 0 plate appearances, 33 runs, 31 stolen bases and 17 caught stealing in 105 career games.  My brother Scott loves pure speed guys; you can bet he would've loved to watch Herb Washington.

PlayerPinch RunsCareer RunsPinch Run %Years
Herb Washington
33
33
100.0
1974-1975
Don Hopkins
25
25
100.0
1975-1976
Rodney McCray
13
13
100.0
1990-1992
Miguel Mejia
10
10
100.0
1996-1996
Allan Lewis
44
47
93.6
1967-1973
Bobby Henrich
12
13
92.3
1957-1959
Luis Ugueto
21
23
91.3
2002-2003
Mike Dimmel
10
11
90.9
1977-1979
Herman Hill
10
12
83.3
1969-1970
Matt Alexander
89
111
80.2
1973-1981

Runs Lost Because Batter Was Pinch Run For
These players had the most runs scored by a pinch runner who was inserted for them.  As expected, the list contains a bunch of slow guys who got on base a lot, making it unsurprising that Edgar Martinez is in the top 10.  With bigger names than the pinch runner lists, this one is naturally a little more interesting to look through so I included the top 100.  I also included a % of their total runs which the "lost" runs comprised.  It certainly seems significant that Smokey Burgess lost 1 run for every 5 that he scored.  I don't know much about Smoky Burgess but given this percentage, his listed size of 5'8" 185 lbs is no surprise.

Notable nicknames from this list of slow guys: "the Bull", "Big Mac", "Pops", "Big Daddy", "Le Grand Orange", "Big Klu", "Penguin", "Muscles", "Bull", "Moose", "Big Hurt", "The Big Cat", "Big Papi".

PlayerRuns LostCareer RunsLost Run %Years
Greg Luzinski
86
880
9.77
1970-1984
Willie McCovey
84
1229
6.83
1959-1980
Smoky Burgess
79
485
16.29
1949-1967
Ted Williams
73
1798
4.06
1939-1960
Harmon Killebrew
66
1283
5.14
1954-1975
Edgar Martinez
66
1219
5.41
1987-2004
Harold Baines
63
1299
4.85
1980-2001
Tony Perez
62
1272
4.87
1964-1986
Joe Adcock
60
823
7.29
1950-1966
Jason Giambi
60
1176
5.1
1995-PRESENT
Frank Howard
59
864
6.83
1958-1973
Jeff Burroughs
59
720
8.19
1970-1985
Willie Stargell
58
1195
4.85
1962-1982
Vic Wertz
57
867
6.57
1947-1963
Cecil Fielder
55
744
7.39
1985-1998
Rusty Staub
54
1189
4.54
1963-1985
Rico Carty
54
712
7.58
1963-1979
Willie Horton
54
873
6.19
1963-1980
Richie Zisk
54
681
7.93
1971-1983
Mike Piazza
52
1048
4.96
1992-2007
Sherm Lollar
50
623
8.03
1946-1963
Ken Singleton
50
985
5.08
1970-1984
Pat Burrell
50
750
6.67
2000-PRESENT
Ted Kluszewski
47
848
5.54
1947-1961
Stan Musial
46
1949
2.36
1941-1963
Wes Covington
45
355
12.68
1956-1966
Lee May
45
959
4.69
1965-1982
Billy Williams
44
1410
3.12
1959-1976
Deron Johnson
44
706
6.23
1960-1976
Ron Cey
43
977
4.4
1971-1987
Cliff Johnson
43
539
7.98
1972-1986
Mickey Mantle
42
1677
2.5
1951-1968
Bob Watson
42
802
5.24
1966-1984
Bill Buckner
42
1077
3.9
1969-1990
Manny Ramirez
42
1544
2.72
1993-PRESENT
Kevin Millar
42
648
6.48
1998-PRESENT
Tony Oliva
41
870
4.71
1962-1976
Matt Stairs
41
766
5.35
1992-PRESENT
John Mayberry
40
733
5.46
1968-1982
Paul Konerko
38
971
3.91
1997-PRESENT
Boog Powell
37
889
4.16
1961-1977
Bob Boone
37
679
5.45
1972-1990
Jim Thome
37
1534
2.41
1991-PRESENT
Billy Goodman
36
807
4.46
1947-1962
Milt May
36
313
11.5
1970-1984
Willie Aikens
36
301
11.96
1977-1985
Pedro Guerrero
36
730
4.93
1978-1992
Julio Franco
35
1285
2.72
1982-2007
John Olerud
35
1139
3.07
1989-2005
Walt Dropo
34
478
7.11
1949-1961
Gene Woodling
34
830
4.1
1943-1962
Gus Triandos
34
389
8.74
1953-1965
Jerry Lynch
34
364
9.34
1954-1966
Jim Pagliaroni
34
269
12.64
1955-1969
Tommy Davis
34
811
4.19
1959-1976
Dave Magadan
34
516
6.59
1986-2001
Tony Clark
34
629
5.41
1995-PRESENT
Bob Nieman
33
455
7.25
1951-1962
Roy Sievers
33
945
3.49
1949-1965
Hal McRae
33
940
3.51
1968-1987
Terry Kennedy
33
474
6.96
1978-1991
Frank Thomas
33
1494
2.21
1990-2008
Johnny Mize
32
1118
2.86
1936-1953
Joe Torre
32
996
3.21
1960-1977
Bo Diaz
32
327
9.79
1977-1989
Chili Davis
32
1240
2.58
1981-1999
Alvin Davis
32
568
5.63
1984-1992
Mark McGwire
32
1167
2.74
1986-2001
Bengie Molina
32
457
7
1998-PRESENT
Hank Aaron
31
2174
1.43
1954-1976
Ed Kranepool
31
536
5.78
1962-1979
Joe Rudi
31
684
4.53
1967-1982
Ron Hassey
31
348
8.91
1978-1991
Andre Dawson
31
1373
2.26
1976-1996
Mike Stanley
31
625
4.96
1986-2000
Al Kaline
30
1622
1.85
1953-1974
Sal Bando
30
982
3.05
1966-1981
Steve Braun
30
466
6.44
1971-1985
Tony Gwynn
30
1383
2.17
1982-2001
Barry Bonds
30
2227
1.35
1986-2007
Darrin Fletcher
30
377
7.96
1989-2002
Duke Snider
29
1259
2.3
1947-1964
Ed Bailey
29
432
6.71
1953-1966
Mike Scioscia
29
398
7.29
1980-1992
Ryan Klesko
29
874
3.32
1992-2007
Dmitri Young
29
648
4.48
1996-2008
Daryle Ward
29
242
11.98
1998-2008
Ray Jablonski
28
297
9.43
1953-1960
Reggie Jackson
28
1551
1.81
1967-1987
Gary Carter
28
1025
2.73
1974-1992
Kevin Seitzer
28
739
3.79
1986-1997
Jim Leyritz
28
325
8.62
1990-2000
Carl Sawatski
27
133
20.3
1948-1963
Carl Yastrzemski
27
1816
1.49
1961-1983
Don Mincher
27
530
5.09
1960-1972
Graig Nettles
27
1193
2.26
1967-1988
Ted Simmons
27
1074
2.51
1968-1988
Mike Hargrove
27
783
3.45
1974-1985
Bob Horner
27
560
4.82
1978-1988
Bobby Bonilla
27
1084
2.49
1986-2001
David Ortiz
27
975
2.77
1997-PRESENT