MLB is not that easy - For some players it’s all downhill

[howard38]

Originally Posted by frankbmd

I thought this was the prewar player I was trying to find, but..........


He pitched 3 innings in 1909. My decision to exclude players with insignificant first years was based on not having to determine where to draw the line.

Could be Vean Gregg is the pre-war pitcher you were thinking of. For pre-war batters it would be hard to top jimmy Williams.

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by howard38

Could be Vean Gregg is the pre-war pitcher you were thinking of. For pre-war batters it would be hard to top jimmy Williams.

Both Gregg and J Williams are excellent candidates with lengthy careers and progressive decline from their rookie years that you don’t need a micrometer to measure.

Both surpass anyone already mentioned and clearly satisfy the criteria. Both also had careers spanning at least 10 years.

[brian1961]

Tom Tresh, Yankees, ROY 1962 with a great World Series performance.

Though this pitcher's 2nd year was a bit better than his first, from his 3rd year to his last, Gary Peters never came close to '63 / '64. A year or two later, Gary even led the AL in ERA, but the lousy-hitting ChiSox couldn't seem to give him much support, and he wound up with a 12-10 record that year.

Another pitcher whose first year was easily his best was Brooklyn Dodger great, Joe Black, with a ROY in '52, and 1-2 victories over the Yankees in the Series.

The last player I thought of was Charlie "King Kong" Keller of the 1939 Yankees. I just recall his batting average was really good his rookie year, then tailed off thereafter.

Well, at least these fine players had some strong moments of MLB glory.

--- Brian Powell

[ValKehl]

Satchel Paige: https://www.baseball-reference.com/p...aigesa01.shtml

[frankbmd]

Tresh had a cup of coffee, before his ROY year.

Keller is marginal unless you only consider his BA

Paige was okay as a 41 y/o rookie, and I guess qualifies, but like Ichiro, he had a significant body of work in an alt ML before getting to the bigs.

By the way Ichiro’s first two years in Japan would disqualify him.

And yes, Joe Black is good, much like Fidrych, but both had only 5-6 years in the ML.

I still like Jimmy Williams and Gregg better for their longer number of years to decline.

Thanks to all for their participation. My hunch though is there are still some sleepers yet to be uncovered.