Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Comparing Jack Morris to Mickey Lolich

Jack Morris was denied entry into the Hall of Fame in his 15th and final time on the BBWAA ballot.  Now his only chance of enshrinement is the Veteran's Committee, starting in 3 years.  He may or may not get in, you may or may not agree that he should get in.  But the more I look at his stats, the more he reminds me of another Tigers great starting pitcher, Mickey Lolich.

Both were aces for several years on Tigers teams, both had won World Series rings as a member of the Tigers and neither had won a Cy Young Award.  Morris holds a record as the most wins during the 1980s and Lolich also holds a record as the most strikeouts in the American League by a left-handed pitcher.  Morris, however, has more All-Star games (5 to Lolich's 3,  including starting 3 of them), and 2 additional World Series rings, with the Minnesota Twins (1991) and the Toronto Blue Jays (1992).

Here are some traditional stats:


IP W L ERA WHIP CG SHO K% BB% HR%
Jack Morris
3824
254
186
3.90
1.30
175
28
15.4%
8.6%
2.4%
Mickey Lolich
3638 1/3
217
191
3.44
1.23
195
41
18.7%
7.3%
2.3%

The 3.90 ERA for Morris is high, high enough for some people to say that he doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame.  The other side of that argument is that Morris pitched in a more offensive era.  Lolich pitched in a more pitcher-dominant era during the 1960's, with a higher mound and a slightly bigger strike zone.  Meanwhile, Morris pitched in a time where he never faced a pitcher-batter during the regular season.  From the time the DH-rule came about to right before Interleague Play started (1973-1996), if a pitcher spent his entire career in the American League, he never faced a pitcher-batter during the regular season.  This is exactly what happened to Morris, who pitched his entire career in the American League from 1977 to 1994.  

There aren't a lot of advanced stats out there to normalize the different eras (like batted ball data), but there are a few:


ERA+ ERA- FIP FIP- fWAR rWAR
Jack Morris
105
95
3.94
97
52.7
43.8
Mickey Lolich
104
96
3.20
87
62.0
48.8

ERA+ is a Baseball-Reference stat, the higher the number the better.  FIP- is a FanGraphs stat, the lower the number the better.  Both are calculated to reflect how the pitcher did relative to the league, with 100 being average.  In Morris' case, he was about 5% better than the league and Lolich was about 4% better than the league.  That's only a 1% difference.  Therefore a 3.90 ERA in Morris' era wasn't that much different than a 3.40 ERA in Lolich's era.  

Fielding Independence Pitching (FIP) uses the three "true" outcomes of strikeouts, walks and homeruns - the three stats that pitchers have the most control over.  This stat favors Lolich since he had better strikeout rates and walk rates while having about equal homerun rates to Morris.  FIP- is calculated by FanGraphs and uses the same premise of ERA-.  Lolich was about 13% better than his peers while Morris was only 3% better.

Split data has become more and more available from past seasons.  Baseball-Reference has just about every split imaginable for both Morris and Lolich.  Going back to Morris never facing a pitcher-batter, we can actually subtract that out of Lolich's numbers and only compare what he did against "real" hitters.

Here are Morris' batting against line versus non-pitchers:

ISplitGPAABRH2B3BHRSBCSBBSOSO/BBBAOBPSLGOPS
vs. Non-P54916120144431711356757291389373142139024781.78.247.313.380.693
Generated 1/8/2014.

And now Lolich's numbers versus non-pitchers:

I Split G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR SB CS BB SO SO/BB BA OBP SLG OPS
vs. Non-P 586 14321 12975 1410 3248 550 71 335 156 147 1059 2516 2.38 .250 .309 .381 .690
Generated 1/8/2014.

Morris had a batting against line of .247/.313/.380/.693.  Lolich had a batting against line of .250/.309/.381/.690 (when taking out pitcher-batters).  That's extremely close.

We can also use that split data to show how well each performed in pressure situations, using leverage index.  Leverage is split into 3 different levels, high, low and medium.  High leverage situations are the close games, where one hit can be the difference in the game.  Low leverage are the blowouts, where a homerun is really inconsequential.  Medium leverage is somewhere in between.  

Jack Morris' Leverage Splits:

ISplitGPAABRH2B3BHRSBCSBBSOSO/BBBAOBPSLGOPS
High Lvrge471286025097126499911651092094161.99.259.310.385.695
Medium Lvrge5447096638063515692564216913661810941.77.246.313.379.692
Low Lvrge54861635553324134921738155105639681.72.243.315.379.694
Unk Lvrge111100000000.000.000.000.000
Generated 1/8/2014.

Jack Morris was very consistent and it didn't really matter what the situation was, he allowed about a .693 OPS in all situations as shown above, a .695 OPS in high leverage, .692 in medium and a .694 in low.  This should be enough evidence to dispute the "he pitched to the score" nonsense argument.

Mickey Lolich's Leverage Splits:

I Split G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR SB CS BB SO SO/BB BA OBP SLG OPS
High Lvrge 485 3049 2636 646 654 96 13 62 0 10 231 551 2.39 .248 .306 .365 .671
Medium Lvrge 531 6345 5778 526 1446 221 25 163 0 10 442 1168 2.64 .250 .307 .382 .689
Low Lvrge 551 5744 5271 255 1265 247 36 122 0 0 426 1113 2.61 .240 .301 .370 .670
Unk Lvrge 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 1.000 2.000
Generated 1/8/2014.

Lolich was also fairly consistent, having slightly better numbers in higher pressure situations compared to medium level situations.  Lolich was slightly better than Morris in the high pressure situations (.671 OPS versus .695), however we don't know how many pitcher-batters he faced in these situations, so they could be closer than at first glance.

Jack Morris pitched twice as many innings in the playoffs as Mickey Lolich and won 2 more World Series rings.  His most memorable game was in game 7 of the 1991 World Series, defeating John Smoltz in a 10-inning shutout.  Lolich also has a memorable World Series, with 3 CG victories including defeating Bob Gibson in game 7 of the 1968 World Series.  Lolich's stats are a little bit more shiny:


IP W L ERA WHIP K% BB%
Jack Morris
92 1/3
7
4
3.80
1.25
16.8%
8.4%
Mickey Lolich
46
3
1
1.57
0.98
17.2%
6.1%

I was not a fan of baseball during the time both of these pitchers pitched.  The only way I can evaluate them is with stats, with no emotion attached.  And with the stats presented to me, it's hard to imagine how one can garner so much Hall of Fame attention while the other is a forgotten pitcher.

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