Fergie Jenkins

Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Fergie Jenkins

Hall-of-Famers as Seen Through Player Won-Lost Records: Fergie Jenkins

Fergie Jenkins was elected to the Hall of Fame in his 3rd year of eligibility, 2000, with 75.4% of the vote.

Five highlights of Fergie Jenkins's career:

Fergie Jenkins had 20 or more traditional wins for six consecutive seasons from 1967 through 1972, all with the Chicago Cubs. He had more than 20 wins a seventh time in 1974 with the Texas Rangers.

From 1967 through 1975, Fergie Jenkins pitched at least 270 innings for nine consecutive seasons, including five seasons with more than 300 innings pitched. Overall, Jenkins pitched 2,705.1 innings over these nine innings, just over 300 innings per season.

Jenkins was the first pitcher in major-league history to retire with more than 3,000 strikeouts (3,192) and fewer than 1,000 walks (997).

Jenkins wore uniform number 31 for the Chicago Cubs. That number was later worn by Greg Maddux. In 2009, the Cubs retired uniform number 31 in honor of both Jenkins and Maddux. Maddux retired with 3,371 strikeouts and 999 walks. Jenkins and Maddux were the first and second pitchers in major-league history with 3,000 career strikeouts and fewer than 1,000 career walks.

Jenkins was the first native Canadian elected to the Hall of Fame.

The first two tables below present Fergie Jenkins's career as measured by Player won-lost records, in and out of context.

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWORL	pWOPA

Basic Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1965	PHI	22	7	0.7	0.8	0.0	-0.1
+– 1966		23	61	9.4	10.2	1.0	-0.4
	CHN		60	9.3	10.1	1.0	-0.4
	PHI		1	0.1	0.1	0.0	0.0
1967	CHN	24	39	20.2	17.5	6.1	3.9
1968	CHN	25	40	21.0	17.8	6.7	4.5
1969	CHN	26	43	22.0	17.4	8.3	6.0
1970	CHN	27	40	21.6	16.9	8.3	6.1
1971	CHN	28	39	24.1	17.4	10.3	8.0
1972	CHN	29	36	18.6	16.2	5.6	3.5
1973	CHN	30	38	15.8	18.4	0.5	-1.6
1974	TEX	31	41	22.7	14.4	11.0	8.6
1975	TEX	32	37	16.4	14.9	3.7	1.7
1976	BOS	33	30	11.1	11.4	1.3	-0.1
1977	BOS	34	28	10.2	10.2	1.5	0.1
1978	TEX	35	34	14.7	10.3	6.1	4.5
1979	TEX	36	37	14.8	14.1	2.7	0.8
1980	TEX	37	29	12.3	11.8	2.1	0.6
1981	TEX	38	19	6.5	7.1	0.4	-0.6
1982	CHN	39	34	13.9	14.5	2.0	0.4
1983	CHN	40	33	8.9	11.1	-0.3	-1.5
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			665	285.0	252.3	77.4	44.4
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			665	285.0	252.3	77.4	44.4

Season	Team	Age	Games	eWins	eLosses	eWORL	eWOPA

Expected Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1965	PHI	22	7	0.8	0.8	0.1	-0.0
+– 1966		23	61	9.7	9.8	1.8	0.4
	CHN		60	9.7	9.8	1.8	0.4
	PHI		1	0.1	0.1	0.0	0.0
1967	CHN	24	39	19.5	18.2	4.9	2.7
1968	CHN	25	40	20.6	18.2	5.9	3.7
1969	CHN	26	43	21.1	18.3	6.6	4.2
1970	CHN	27	40	22.0	16.5	9.3	7.0
1971	CHN	28	39	23.7	17.7	9.8	7.5
1972	CHN	29	36	18.0	16.7	4.6	2.5
1973	CHN	30	38	16.5	17.7	1.8	-0.2
1974	TEX	31	41	21.4	15.7	8.3	5.9
1975	TEX	32	37	15.9	15.4	2.7	0.7
1976	BOS	33	30	11.5	11.0	2.1	0.7
1977	BOS	34	28	10.4	10.0	1.8	0.5
1978	TEX	35	34	14.0	11.0	4.7	3.0
1979	TEX	36	37	14.4	14.6	1.8	-0.0
1980	TEX	37	29	12.5	11.7	2.5	0.9
1981	TEX	38	19	6.1	7.5	-0.4	-1.3
1982	CHN	39	34	13.1	15.3	0.4	-1.3
1983	CHN	40	33	9.6	10.4	1.1	-0.1
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			665	280.8	256.5	69.9	36.9
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			665	280.8	256.5	69.9	36.9

The next table shows the top pitcher in each league each season of the 1970s as measured by pWins over replacement level (pWORL).

		Player	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL		Player	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL
	Top Pitchers by League-Season in the 1970s, pWORL
1970	AL	Jim Palmer	20.5	15.3	6.3	8.3	NL	Bob Gibson	21.5	13.6	9.1	11.1
1971	AL	Vida Blue	20.8	14.9	7.0	9.1	NL	Fergie Jenkins	24.1	17.4	8.0	10.3
1972	AL	Gaylord Perry	24.1	18.5	6.8	9.3	NL	Steve Carlton	25.0	14.9	11.3	13.7
1973	AL	Nolan Ryan	22.8	15.7	7.2	9.7	NL	Tom Seaver	19.9	13.8	7.2	9.2
1974	AL	Fergie Jenkins	22.7	14.4	8.6	11.0	NL	Andy Messersmith	18.4	13.7	5.6	7.4
1975	AL	Jim Palmer	20.2	12.1	8.3	10.4	NL	Tom Seaver	18.3	13.3	6.3	8.1
1976	AL	Jim Palmer	19.2	13.4	6.0	8.1	NL	Steve Carlton	17.0	12.6	5.4	7.1
1977	AL	Jim Palmer	18.4	13.2	5.3	7.4	NL	Tom Seaver	19.0	12.3	7.7	9.5
1978	AL	Ron Guidry	18.5	9.6	9.0	10.8	NL	Phil Niekro	21.9	18.9	4.3	6.7
1979	AL	Mike Flanagan	17.8	11.8	6.2	8.1	NL	J.R. Richard	20.1	16.0	5.5	7.6

Fergie Jenkins actually won one Cy Young award in his career, in 1971 (in the National League), when Jenkins went 24-13, 2.77 in 325 innings pitched, leading the National League in pitcher wins, innings pitched, games started (39), complete games (30), fewest walks per nine innings (1.0), and strikeout-to-walk ratio (7.11). Player won-lost records agree that he deserved that award.

Player won-lost records also think that Jenkins deserved a second Cy Young award, the 1974 American League Cy Young. That season, Jenkins went 25-12, 2.82 in 328.1 innings pitched, leading the American League in pitcher wins, complete games (29), fewest walks per nine innings (1.2), and strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.00).

In fact, as measured by pWins over replacement level, Jenkins's 1974 season was the best season by an American League pitcher in the 1970s and his 1971 season was the third-best season by a National League pitcher in the 1970s behind the seasons just before and after his 1971 season.

Article last updated: June 16, 2020

All articles are written so that they pull data directly from the most recent version of the Player won-lost database. Hence, any numbers cited within these articles should automatically incorporate the most recent update to Player won-lost records. In some cases, however, the accompanying text may have been written based on previous versions of Player won-lost records. I apologize if this results in non-sensical text in any cases.

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