This is a follow up to my last post. But in this case a pitcher's SO/H ratio is compared to the league average. Data in this case is from the Lee Sinins Complete Baseball Encyclopedia.
I called up two sets of pitchers. One was the top 200 in relative SO/9IP ratio. That is, each pitcher's SO/9IP ratio was divided by the league average. The other set was the top 200 in relative H/9IP. I figured that the highest relative SO/H ratios would come from pitchers in these two groups.
The table below shows all the pitchers whose SO/H ratio was at least 3.00 times as high as the league average.
|
Pitcher |
YEAR |
IP |
SO/H |
Lg SO/H |
Rel. SO/H |
|
Bob Feller |
1937 |
149 |
1.29 |
0.36 |
3.58 |
|
Pedro Martinez |
2000 |
217 |
2.22 |
0.62 |
3.57 |
|
Rube Waddell |
1902 |
276.1 |
0.94 |
0.26 |
3.55 |
|
Goose Gossage |
1977 |
133 |
1.94 |
0.56 |
3.43 |
|
Dazzy Vance |
1924 |
308.1 |
1.10 |
0.33 |
3.35 |
|
Bruce Sutter |
1977 |
107.1 |
1.87 |
0.57 |
3.26 |
|
Mitch Williams |
1987 |
108.2 |
2.05 |
0.63 |
3.23 |
|
Johnny Vander Meer |
1941 |
226 |
1.17 |
0.37 |
3.19 |
|
J.R. Richard |
1980 |
113.2 |
1.83 |
0.58 |
3.18 |
|
Bruce Sutter |
1979 |
101.1 |
1.64 |
0.52 |
3.16 |
|
Dazzy Vance |
1925 |
265.1 |
0.89 |
0.28 |
3.16 |
|
Pedro Martinez |
1999 |
213.1 |
1.96 |
0.63 |
3.13 |
|
Nolan Ryan |
1976 |
284.1 |
1.69 |
0.54 |
3.12 |
|
Tom Hall |
1970 |
155 |
1.96 |
0.63 |
3.10 |
|
Mariano Rivera |
1996 |
107.2 |
1.78 |
0.58 |
3.05 |
|
Mark Littell |
1977 |
104.2 |
1.45 |
0.48 |
3.05 |
|
Lefty Grove |
1926 |
258 |
0.85 |
0.28 |
3.03 |
|
Herb Score |
1956 |
249 |
1.62 |
0.54 |
3.02 |
|
Nolan Ryan |
1977 |
299 |
1.72 |
0.57 |
3.00 |
Most of these guys came up on both lists. For some reason, their relative SO/H ratios were just very slightly different on the two different lists. Feller was just a bit ahead of Martinez in both cases.
In 1937, Feller had 9.04 SO/9IP and allowed 7.01 H/9IP for a ratio of about 1.29. The league average SO/9IP was 3.63 while for H/9IP it was 10.02 for a league average ratio of .36. Then 1.29/.36 = 3.58. So Feller's relative SO/H ratio in 1937 was 3.58.
What about Spencer Strider, who had the highest non-relative SO/H ratio ever in a season of 2.35 last year? What is his relative ratio?
The league average SO/H ratio in the NL in 2022 was 1.03. So then 2.35/1.03 = 2.28. Strider's relative ratio is far below the guys in the table here. On the best SO/9IP list, that would be just 104th. On the best relative H/9IP list it was 78th.
