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Comprehensive Pitch Count Report 2004
Publication Date: June 30, 2004
The Annual Ouch!
I'm doing this a little earlier than I have in past years this time; I'm going to be taking some paternity leave which will most likely start next week and continue for three or four weeks, and I wanted to get these numbers out before the guys who are now or will be soon pitching professionally get too far along.
For those of you who got here since this time last year, go read at least part of this. This report is an annual part of a long-term research project where I'm tracking pitcher usage numbers for, essentially, every Division I starter along with minor league statistics over a five-year period in order to check for correlations between high workload and future injury or ineffectiveness rates. There are, unavoidably, a ton of numbers here, but they matter, so let's slog on through. This year, through improved data gathering and verification methods, I was able to gather lines for over 15,500 starts, which is around the 97% range.
The Hall of Shame
For starters, here are the worst single-game starts from NCAA pitchers last year, with the actual pitch count entries listed first and the estimated counts listed after:
Team Pitcher IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP Samford Stephen Artz 9.0 10 7 7 3 12 36 41 179 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Jorge Huerta 8.0 13 8 4 7 4 36 43 166 St. Peter's Sean Spicer 8.0 4 3 1 3 2 29 32 158 South Alabama P. J. Walters 9.0 6 2 2 6 10 33 39 158 Savannah State Carlos Markyna 8.0 14 13 11 3 5 37 44 158 Texas-San Antonio Klae Boehme 9.0 11 5 5 2 8 37 39 156 Youngstown State Chris Dennis 9.0 3 0 0 6 13 27 34 155 North Carolina-Asheville Steven Cook 10.0 7 3 2 3 11 38 42 154 The Citadel Jonathan Ellis 9.0 6 1 1 5 13 33 39 153 Middle Tennessee State John Williams 9.0 7 5 2 6 14 35 41 153 Mercer Brian Jones 9.0 13 4 4 1 7 38 39 152 Evansville Ryan Lancaster 6.2 14 5 5 1 6 30 34 152 Eastern Illinois Kirk Miller 7.0 9 5 5 8 3 27 35 151 Oklahoma State Thomas Cowley 9.0 6 4 3 1 12 34 36 150 New Orleans Thomas Diamond 7.0 8 2 2 4 12 29 33 150
Team Pitcher IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP Boston College Jake Marsello 9.0 9 10 8 8 11 38 47 169 Morehead State Adrian Duran 7.0 16 6 6 2 9 38 41 165 Coppin State Brian Crossley 6.0 19 14 14 2 4 39 43 165 South Alabama P. J. Walters 9.0 12 4 3 4 11 39 44 164 Temple Chris Kurtz 9.0 11 6 5 5 6 38 46 162 Samford Karl Huch 8.2 10 4 4 3 8 38 41 161 Iona Sean Kramer 7.1 11 5 3 5 6 35 41 161 Rhode Island Stephen Holmes 8.1 8 3 3 4 11 34 39 159 North Carolina A&T Ian DiGiorgio 9.0 11 9 6 3 6 41 44 159 McNeese State Rusty Begnaud 7.1 9 11 9 4 7 34 41 158 Maine Sam Warner 9.1 13 9 8 4 6 40 47 158 Iona Sean Kramer 8.0 14 8 5 0 8 40 42 158 Portland Stephen Ball 8.1 6 4 4 6 8 31 41 157 Arkansas-Pine Bluff David Bayless 8.0 13 7 7 3 3 38 42 157 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Trey Hearne 9.0 12 6 6 1 6 40 42 156 Southeast Missouri State Anthony Maupin 9.0 15 10 10 3 7 40 46 156 Sacred Heart Dinihanian 9.0 8 3 1 1 10 38 39 156 LeMoyne Matt Scherer 9.0 10 2 2 2 10 37 40 156 Jacksonville Dennis Robinson 9.0 11 5 5 3 7 38 42 156 Fairleigh Dickinson Brian Bunyan 9.0 5 1 1 5 9 33 39 156
As always, take the estimates with a grain of salt, both up or down. On the other hand, all of these are 39 batters or more, and it's hard to do that without racking up a high number of pitches. We're down to only 15 verified 150+-pitch outings from 19 last year, so maybe the glass is up to at least a tenth full.
Season Totals
Here are the 100 worst season totals. I'll include a link to the the full list at the bottom.
Team Pitcher GC GE PAP V IV South Alabama P. J. Walters 12 8 794487 6 2 Samford Stephen Artz 14 6 598737 2 1 North Carolina-Asheville Steven Cook 15 12 593358 5 2 Morehead State Adrian Duran 15 11 552760 3 2 Jackson State Anthony Johnson 18 18 532420 5 0 Texas-San Antonio Klae Boehme 15 8 516612 4 2 Iona Sean Kramer 14 12 499492 3 1 Arizona Koley Kolberg 21 8 425650 3 8 Evansville Ryan Lancaster 12 9 424307 4 2 Southern Utah Justin Abbott 10 10 397730 3 1 Southwest Missouri State Derek Drage 15 12 377583 4 1 The Citadel Jonathan Ellis 18 1 357256 5 0 Jacksonville Dennis Robinson 17 13 340776 3 0 Temple Chris Kurtz 10 9 340610 2 0 Alabama-Birmingham Jeff Brown 14 7 332702 3 1 Boston College Jake Marsello 4 3 328509 1 0 St. Peter's Sean Spicer 10 7 321176 3 0 Vermont Chris Blazek 11 11 314870 3 0 Central Michigan T.J. Johnson 11 9 310871 3 2 Western Michigan J.r. Mathes 13 10 305539 2 2 Charleston Southern R. J. Swindle 17 14 304842 3 2 St. Peter's Dan Cainas 11 9 300644 2 4 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Jorge Huerta 6 2 298366 1 0 Texas A&M Zach Jackson 18 11 294702 3 2 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Trey Hearne 13 5 293711 2 2 Eastern Michigan Ryan Ford 16 11 286747 2 4 Washington Tim Lincecum 18 14 281071 2 2 Western Kentucky Grady Hinchman 16 12 280125 2 2 South Alabama Jeramy Simmons 17 9 275452 2 3 Arkansas-Pine Bluff David Bayless 8 6 274698 2 0 Coppin State Brian Crossley 9 9 274633 1 0 Gonzaga Eric Dworkis 14 13 274441 2 1 Miami, Ohio Graham Taylor 15 2 273636 2 3 Iowa Nathan Johnson 14 11 272078 2 2 Northeastern Justin Hedrick 12 11 270349 3 0 Georgia Southern John Carroll 15 6 269452 3 1 Cal State Fullerton Jason Windsor 18 4 268613 2 6 North Carolina A&T Michael Hauff 11 11 265735 2 3 Middle Tennessee State John Williams 14 9 263744 2 1 Arizona John Meloan 11 7 263641 3 1 Norfolk State Andrew Renshaw 9 9 263451 2 0 Rhode Island Zach Zuercher 12 9 258600 2 4 San Jose State Matt Durkin 16 5 251482 3 3 McNeese State Rusty Begnaud 14 9 248543 1 2 Samford Karl Huch 13 7 245196 1 1 Southeast Missouri State Anthony Maupin 14 7 241855 2 2 Minnesota Glen Perkins 15 9 241478 2 2 Western Illinois Patrick Kohorst 14 14 240633 2 2 Alcorn State Torry Bates 9 9 237014 3 1 Charleston Southern Brad Bissell 14 10 233134 2 0 Northern Illinois Joe Piekarz 16 12 232754 1 5 Connecticut Mike James 8 5 229718 2 0 Delaware State Shawn Phillips 14 14 229431 2 1 Old Dominion Justin Verlander 16 13 226713 2 1 Rhode Island Stephen Holmes 11 11 226126 1 1 New Orleans Thomas Diamond 17 8 221986 1 5 LeMoyne Matt Scherer 13 9 220623 1 1 Cal State Fullerton Ricky Romero 22 6 217811 3 2 Maine Sam Warner 3 3 217064 1 1 Appalachian State Scott Clark 15 5 213487 1 2 Oklahoma State Thomas Cowley 9 3 212927 2 1 Creighton Steve Grasley 17 13 211298 3 0 North Carolina A&T Ian DiGiorgio 12 12 209260 1 0 Arizona State Jason Urquidez 17 0 208555 3 2 Savannah State Carlos Markyna 8 5 207579 1 1 Maryland-Baltimore County Eric Butkiewicz 14 14 207045 1 2 Indiana State Matt Zaleski 14 12 205227 1 2 Stanford Mark Romanczuk 17 13 205157 2 1 Virginia Military J. J. Hollenbeck 12 11 202490 2 0 Alabama-Birmingham Adam Price 13 6 200762 2 2 New Orleans J. P. Martinez 14 4 200719 3 2 Texas-Pan American Tommy Sorden 13 9 200509 1 2 Rider Eric Weiner 14 14 197543 2 1 Fairleigh Dickinson Brian Bunyan 9 9 197270 1 1 Sam Houston State Zach Adkisson 14 12 194696 1 1 Cal State Sacramento Ethan Katz 15 11 192897 2 4 Hartford Scott Roy 11 11 192835 1 3 Loyola Marymount Stephen Kahn 12 7 188883 3 1 Coastal Carolina Steven Carter 16 2 188838 2 0 Portland Stephen Ball 3 3 185193 1 0 Ohio State Josh Newman 15 0 185073 1 6 Pepperdine Jacob Barrack 18 3 184224 2 2 Sacred Heart Dinihanian 5 2 183616 1 0 Valparaiso Tom Starck 13 12 183107 1 2 Albany Adam Kroft 12 12 181562 1 2 Youngstown State Chris Dennis 10 7 178218 1 0 Air Force Paul Vignola 15 4 177546 2 0 Toledo J. R. Duffey 13 12 177407 1 1 Eastern Illinois Kirk Miller 7 1 176031 1 2 Middle Tennessee State Chris Mobley 16 12 175790 1 2 Kansas State Carlos Torres 11 7 175543 2 1 Mercer Brian Jones 18 7 174089 1 1 Michigan State Jeff Gerbe 10 9 172234 1 0 Siena Ryan Bitter 14 8 171360 1 1 Virginia Commonwealth Justin Orenduff 15 12 171224 1 2 Georgia Tech Micah Owings 15 1 170057 1 3 McNeese State Chris Denton 11 8 169793 1 2 Northwestern J. A. Happ 14 0 169237 2 3 Maine Mike MacDonald 12 12 168581 1 3 Portland Sean Sargent 9 4 167994 2 0 Legend: GC -- games counted (starts I have records for) GE -- games estimated PAP -- PAP score V -- category V starts (133+ pitches) IV -- category IV starts (121-132 pitches)
The #100 guy moved up a bit from last year, although it's still lower than 2002. Koley Kolberg led the nation in starts over 120 pitches with 11, while P. J. Walters and Jason Windsor tied for second with 8.
Team Listings
Here are the twenty highest staff PAP's I could find:
Team GC GE PAP V IV South Alabama 58 36 1144143 9 7 Samford 57 27 959638 4 4 Arizona 65 27 890821 8 9 St. Peter's 37 30 744651 6 4 Morehead State 53 38 719852 5 2 North Carolina A&T 50 49 685212 5 6 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 50 24 682404 3 5 North Carolina-Asheville 54 43 635530 5 4 Evansville 60 51 598610 5 6 Rhode Island 56 49 581502 4 6 Iona 52 45 575657 4 1 Texas-San Antonio 58 33 574566 4 4 Jackson State 49 49 573971 5 1 Alabama-Birmingham 59 32 562417 5 4 Charleston Southern 58 44 549541 5 2 Cal State Fullerton 69 22 528858 5 10 Coppin State 50 48 527632 2 3 Temple 49 44 503854 4 1 Boston College 46 34 500094 2 4 Southwest Missouri State 59 44 498843 4 8
In the interests of fairness to the coaching profession as a whole, here are a few PAP counts that I found admirable. It's not really a lowest list, since that would be too affected by the number of games I could find; it's just a few that I found impressive.
Team GC GE PAP V IV Southern 40 37 125 0 0 Binghamton 43 41 2334 0 0 Auburn 56 40 5641 0 0 Ball State 56 3 6084 0 0 Quinnipiac 42 38 7177 0 0 Jacksonville State 60 1 7545 0 0 Furman 47 21 9602 0 0 San Diego State 64 48 9897 0 0 East Carolina 64 25 12447 0 0 Georgia 68 37 12503 0 0 Arkansas State 57 14 12665 0 0 Notre Dame 63 1 13541 0 0 Army 52 46 14042 0 0 Southern California 56 42 17347 0 0 LaSalle 50 44 18809 0 1 Bowling Green State 48 39 18973 0 0 Pittsburgh 45 32 19358 0 0 Arkansas 69 2 21193 0 1
Auburn repeats once again; they've been under 10,000 PAP all three years I've done this. Steve Renfroe is looking for a job. I realize that's not why he was fired, but I worry about that. East Carolina also repeats here, which is encouraging because they had a great year; it's obviously easier to make this list if your pitchers aren't that good. It's encouraging to see three SEC teams on the list for a change, although one of them comes with a huge asterisk worth discussing, since it demonstrates a limitation of PAP -- it's not designed to measure truly ludicrous behavior.
Dave Van Horn did some terrible things at Nebraska while building a great program. Wayne Graham deservedly catches a lot of heat for Kenny Baugh's 171-pitch game, but it gets lost in the shuffle some times that Shane Komine threw 162 pitches in that same game. However, for whatever reason, Van Horn appeared to have changed his stripes at Arkansas. Whether that was simply random, due to personal growth, or an outgrowth of a legendary heated phone call from Oakland A's GM Billy Beane after the just-drafted Komine was ridden hard again, he eased up on the crop. He hasn't had a real top prospect on the mound at Arkansas, but he's had several guys who were good enough that most coaches would have overworked them, and he behaved quite well with them through the 2003 season and the 2004 season up through the SEC tournament (and won a share of the SEC title in the progress). Then, in the regional, he got Clint Brannon up to 124 pitches on Friday. Not good, but nothing worth mentioning. Charley Boyce threw 99 pitches on Saturday, which was, again, nothing worth mentioning. Then, facing an elimination game on Sunday, Van Horn reverted to Little League (before they changed the Little League rules in most places), bringing Boyce back in relief to throw another 104 pitches. We're all the sum of our parts, and it's hard to know what to do with a coach who appears to be making progress and then commits one humongous slip. We'll hope for more progress next year, not just from Van Horn but from everyone who's entrusted for a while with these guys we want to watch for a couple of decades.
Comprehensive Lists
Finally, thorough lists for pitchers and teams:
The pitcher list has every pitcher that accumulated either 8 starts or 100,000 PAP; the team list has every team. Each list, of course, is subject to the limitations of the data that I have. Once again, on the comprehensive lists, I'm going to do something that's different from what I normally do, because I want it to be as accurate a record as possible when I come back to it in a few years -- I will update the records if I get data on additional starts. In response to a request I've had, a list sorted by PAP is linked in from the team report.
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