Good morning!
Last week on Sporcle Saturday, I received entreaties (tip of the cap to VAChisox) to highlight some of the, shall we say, lesser performances by White Sox players over the years. Lean into the suck, you might say. This week's Sporcle attempts to do just that: I am but your humble servant in these quizzes.
But, where to start? This is a franchise from which there is plenty to choose when it comes to poor performances. Looking at the current White Sox roster, two pitchers have already logged 10 losses on the season: Chris Flexen and Mike Soroka. Based on availability, Flexen seems the better candidate to reach 15 losses this season so I decided to go that route for this week's quiz.
Now, 15 losses by itself doesn't necessarily reflect a bad season: Ed Walsh, to use just one example from several, went 40-15 with a 1.42 ERA in 1908. So, I added an ERA threshold of at least 4.00 as well (making that threshold higher than 4 yielded too few names, in my opinion). The other side of the coin holds true, as well: Lucas Giolito's disastrous 2018 season doesn't appear on this list because he "only" lost 13 games, even with an ERA above 6. (Perhaps a future Sporcle will combine high ERA with low ERA+)
At any rate, today's quiz will ask you to name those White Sox pitchers throughout franchise history who tallied at least 15 losses and also logged an ERA of 4.00 or higher. That results in 37 player-seasons. How many can you name? Good luck!
Quiz Parameters
- I've allotted 15 minutes for completion attempts.
- For hints I've listed the year, number of losses, and ERA.
Useless information to amaze, annoy, confuse, and/or confound your friends and family:
- By win-loss percentage, the worst on this list is .167, good for a 4-20 record (1921).
- The highest WHIP is 1.867 (1995).
- The worst ERA+ is 68 (1931, 6.22 ERA).
- That 1931 season may be among the worst of all time across MLB (under these parameters, at least). When I bumped up the Stathead query to player-seasons with at least 20 losses and an ERA of above 6.00, the only players who came back were four from the nineteenth century: Bert Inks (1895: 20 L, 6.40 ERA), Les German (1896: 20 L, 6.43 ERA), Bill Hart (1897: 27 L, 6.26 ERA), and Red Donahue (1897: 35 L, 6.13 ERA)
- Three players on this list actually logged an ERA+ better than league average: 104 (1929), 102 (1932), and 107 (1935).
All data from stathead.com
