Luis Tiant

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Luis Tiant

2018 Modern Era Hall of Fame Ballot: Luis Tiant

The Baseball Hall of Fame recently announced their 2018 Modern Era ballot. One player on the ballot is former Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox pitcher, Luis Tiant.

The first table below presents Luis Tiant's career as measured by Player won-lost records.

Season	Team	Age	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWin Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	eWins	eLosses	eWin Pct.	eWOPA	eWORL
Luis Tiant Basic Player Won-Lost Records
												Value Decomposition
1964	CLE	23	19	9.2	6.9	0.571	1.5	2.3	8.3	7.3	0.529	0.8	1.6
1965	CLE	24	41	13.0	13.1	0.499	0.5	1.7	12.3	12.4	0.498	0.5	1.6
1966	CLE	25	46	11.6	10.0	0.537	1.1	2.2	9.4	8.9	0.512	0.4	1.3
1967	CLE	26	33	14.2	12.4	0.534	1.5	2.6	14.1	13.6	0.508	0.8	2.0
1968	CLE	27	34	18.8	12.7	0.598	3.8	5.1	16.8	12.5	0.573	2.8	4.0
1969	CLE	28	38	16.1	20.9	0.436	-1.6	0.2	15.4	18.7	0.452	-0.9	0.7
1970	MIN	29	18	6.3	5.2	0.549	0.8	1.3	6.0	6.5	0.480	0.0	0.6
1971	BOS	30	21	3.8	5.5	0.407	-0.8	-0.3	4.2	5.0	0.456	-0.3	0.1
1972	BOS	31	43	11.7	8.9	0.568	1.7	2.7	10.4	9.0	0.536	1.0	1.9
1973	BOS	32	35	17.8	13.6	0.567	2.3	3.8	16.3	13.3	0.550	1.7	3.1
1974	BOS	33	38	20.1	13.5	0.599	3.6	5.1	18.6	13.8	0.574	2.7	4.1
1975	BOS	34	35	15.5	13.4	0.536	1.2	2.6	13.9	12.9	0.519	0.7	1.9
1976	BOS	35	38	17.5	15.6	0.528	1.1	2.6	15.7	14.8	0.514	0.6	1.9
1977	BOS	36	32	13.2	10.5	0.558	1.5	2.8	11.4	10.4	0.522	0.6	1.7
1978	BOS	37	32	13.3	10.1	0.567	1.7	2.8	12.5	11.1	0.530	0.8	1.9
1979	NYA	38	30	11.4	9.2	0.553	1.3	2.2	11.8	10.1	0.537	1.0	2.0
1980	NYA	39	25	7.5	7.6	0.497	0.0	0.7	8.0	7.4	0.517	0.4	1.0
1981	PIT	40	9	2.9	3.9	0.431	-0.3	0.0	3.6	3.4	0.518	0.3	0.6
1982	CAL	41	6	1.7	1.9	0.464	-0.1	0.1	1.6	1.9	0.469	-0.1	0.1
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			573	225.8	195.0	0.537	20.9	40.2	210.1	193.0	0.521	13.8	32.3
			------	------	------				------	------
PostSeason (career)			6	2.9	1.1	0.721		1.1	2.4	1.7	0.575		0.5
			------	------	------	------		------	------	------	------		------
COMBINED			579	228.7	196.1	0.537		41.3	212.4	194.8	0.521		32.8

Luis Tiant earned 20 or more pitcher wins four times in his career. He also led the American League in ERA twice, with ERA's below 2 in both cases (1.60 in 1968 and 1.91 in 1972).

Luis Tiant pitched most of his career in a very low-run environment. For example, according to Baseball-Reference, Tiant's AL-leading 1.91 ERA in 1972 produced an ERA+ of 169. In 2008, Cliff Lee led the AL in ERA+ at 167 on an ERA of 2.54.

In addition to pitching in a low run-scoring environment, the 1960s and 1970s were something of a Golden Age for Hall-of-Fame pitchers. Luis Tiant debuted on the BBWAA's Hall-of-Fame ballot in 1988. From 1987 - 1999, 11 pitchers whose careeer overlapped with Tiant's were elected to the Hall of Fame. At least 5 pitchers whose career overlapped at least partially with Tiant's were elected to the Hall of Fame before 1987 and at least 3 more have been elected since 1999.

Luis Tiant last appeared on a Veterans' Ballot in 2015. In my article on Luis Tiant at that time, I compared him to Catfish Hunter. At that time, Catfish Hunter was the most similar player to Luis Tiant, as measured by Player won-lost records.

Because of some updates to Player won-lost records since that time - which have been largely favorable to Luis Tiant - Catfish Hunter is no longer the player most similar to Tiant. The 10 players (since World War II) most similar to Luis Tiant in career value, as measured by Player won-lost records, are shown in the next table.

Player	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL	Batting	Baserunning	Pitching	Fielding
		Most Similar Players to Luis Tiant in Value through age 28
						Wins over Baseline
Luis Tiant	573	225.8	195.0	20.9	40.2	-2.9	-0.1	0.0	0.4
David Wells	660	207.0	179.8	17.4	38.3	-1.1	-0.1	0.0	0.3
David Cone	451	184.5	153.8	20.7	37.8	-2.3	-0.1	0.0	0.5
Billy Pierce	592	218.8	189.8	22.4	40.2	-5.6	-0.1	0.0	1.0
Orel Hershiser	516	195.1	176.6	17.7	35.4	-3.2	-0.2	0.0	0.4
Rick Reuschel	569	219.9	205.8	16.9	35.1	-6.0	-0.2	0.0	0.7
Don Drysdale	544	220.1	204.7	17.3	35.7	-3.8	-0.2	0.0	1.1
Mark Buehrle	518	195.6	175.5	14.6	34.5	-1.1	-0.0	0.0	0.9
Jim Bunning	598	239.2	217.5	20.2	40.3	-7.3	-0.2	0.0	0.2
Dwight Gooden	433	184.1	156.0	22.0	37.8	-3.1	-0.1	0.0	0.6
Early Wynn	796	309.3	284.3	24.2	49.7	-4.4	-0.2	0.0	0.7

Luis Tiant's 10 most similars includes three Hall-of-Famers: Don Drysdale, Jim Bunning, and Early Wynn.

The next table compares the career records of Luis Tiant and Jim Bunning. Bunning was nine years older than Tiant, so, while their careers did overlap by eight seasons, the comparison below is by age. I think I'll just let the comparison speak for itself.

Age	Games	pWins	pLoss	Win Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	Games	pWins	pLoss	Win Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL
	Luis Tiant						Jim Bunning
23	19	9.2	6.9	0.571	1.5	2.3	15	3.1	5.6	0.358	-1.1	-0.8
24	41	13.0	13.1	0.499	0.5	1.7	15	3.3	2.3	0.595	0.6	0.9
25	46	11.6	10.0	0.537	1.1	2.2	45	18.1	14.1	0.561	2.7	4.0
26	33	14.2	12.4	0.534	1.5	2.6	36	14.7	14.7	0.501	0.7	1.8
27	34	18.8	12.7	0.598	3.8	5.1	40	16.1	16.3	0.496	0.5	1.9
28	38	16.1	20.9	0.436	-1.6	0.2	37	15.1	13.5	0.527	1.4	2.6
29	18	6.3	5.2	0.549	0.8	1.3	38	18.5	14.3	0.564	2.7	4.1
30	21	3.8	5.5	0.407	-0.8	-0.3	42	18.2	14.3	0.560	2.7	4.1
31	43	11.7	8.9	0.568	1.7	2.7	40	15.1	16.1	0.483	0.2	1.6
32	35	17.8	13.6	0.567	2.3	3.8	41	18.2	13.5	0.573	3.0	4.7
33	38	20.1	13.5	0.599	3.6	5.1	39	19.3	14.1	0.577	3.4	4.8
34	35	15.5	13.4	0.536	1.2	2.6	43	20.3	16.7	0.549	2.5	4.0
35	38	17.5	15.6	0.528	1.1	2.6	40	19.3	15.1	0.560	2.8	4.3
36	32	13.2	10.5	0.558	1.5	2.8	27	8.2	12.0	0.407	-1.5	-0.7
37	32	13.3	10.1	0.567	1.7	2.8	34	12.6	12.6	0.499	0.5	1.7
38	30	11.4	9.2	0.553	1.3	2.2	35	11.9	13.1	0.477	-0.1	1.0
39	25	7.5	7.6	0.497	0.0	0.7	31	7.4	9.1	0.447	-0.7	0.1
40	9	2.9	3.9	0.431	-0.3	0.0
41	6	1.7	1.9	0.464	-0.1	0.1
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER RECORDS	573	225.8	195.0	0.537	20.9	40.2	598	239.2	217.5	0.524	20.2	40.3

2018 Modern Era Hall of Fame Ballot

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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