Came across a really dumb-founding thing about Nolan when looking at his splits throughout his career.
He was actually more effective in innings 7-9 then he was at any other stretch of the game.
The generally accepted wisdom, is that the more often a lineup can see a pitcher throughout the course of a game, the more success they have off that pitcher.
One of the biggest reasons we see very few complete games nowadays.
Ryan, in another example of him subverting expectations, usually got stronger as the game went on. The 1st inning was easily the worst of his career. 7 through 9, the strongest.
The saying you see with some pitchers "You have to get to them early, if you want to get to them at all", was a bit of a literalism, when it came to Ryan.
This may also be applicable to other pitchers I'm not aware of.......but it really stuck out like a sore thumb to me, when looking a Ryan's stats.
Again, not saying Ryan was consistent in any way........just exciting in a jaw dropping way. Koufax, in his much shorter career, was mind-blowingly consistent from inning 1 to inning 9. Another incredible power pitcher, but with a somewhat different approach.
|