Pitchers Who Had 30 Or More Quality Starts In A Season

This is a guest post by Clem Comly which was originally posted to SABR-L last week.

Felix Hernandez notched quality start #30 for the season yesterday. Mlb.com mentioned he was first to reach 30 since Randy Johnson in 2002. ESPN listed a handful who "recently" (since 1980?) reached 30. Using baseball-reference.com's play index, I was able to look at the period 1920-2010. Hernandez' 2010 season is the fifty-third 30+ QS season.

Looking at 1920-2010, the records for the sum of the QS games but excluding non-QS games and relief appearances:

Most QS: 37 1971 Wilbur Wood (21-10) (honorable mention 36 for 1946 Feller (26-9) and 1966 Koufax (27-6))

Most wins 28 1968 Denny McLain (28-3)

Most wins w/o loss 23 1980 Steve Stone in 24 QS

Most losses 13 1940 "Losing Pitcher" Mulcahy (12-13) and 1920 Rollie Naylor (6-13) [both pitching for a Phila. team]

Looking at just 30+QS seasons, the 1920-2010 records for the sum of the QS games but excluding non-QS games and relief appearances:

Best ERA 0.90 1922 Urban Shocker (19-10) in 30 QS

Worst ERA 2.09 1952 Robin Roberts in 31 QS

Best Winning% .960 1963 Koufax (24-1) in 31 QS

Worst Winning% .556 1972 Blyleven (15-12) in 31 QS

Most wins 28 1968 Denny McLain (28-3)

Fewest wins 13 2010 Felix Hernandez (perhaps 1 more start), 1920-2009 15 1965 Osteen, 1967 Bunning, and 1972 Blyleven.

Most losses 12 1972 Blyleven (15-12) in 31 QS
Fewest losses 1 1963 Koufax (24-1) in 31 QS

Most no decisions: 9 2010 Felix Hernandez (perhaps 1 more start), 1920-2009 8 1986 Mke Scott (17-7 in his 32 QSs)

Looking at 1920-2010 30+QS seasons, the records for the all games including non-QS games and relief appearances:

Fewest wins 14 2010 Felix Hernandez (perhaps 1 more start), 1920-2009 15 1965 Osteen (went 0-5 in non-QS games to finish overall at 15-15).

Other comments:

Is Felix 59 QS in consecutive seasons 2009-10 a record? No. Koufax 1965-6 had 71 (honorable mention Wilbur Wood 1971-2 70).

Looking at the distribution of 30+ QS seasons 1920-2009, 1960-9 had 20 while 1970-9 had 15.

Four decades had a single pitcher reach 30 QS in a season:

1930s was 1939 Bucky Walters
1950s was 1952 Robin Roberts
1990s was 1992 Maddux
2000s was 2002 Randy Johnson.

Clem Comly is the vice-president of Retrosheet and co-chair of SABR's statistical analysis committee while being a member of several other committees. He is also a Phillies fan.