Luis Tiant Jr.

Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Luis Tiant Jr.

2015 Veterans' Committee HOF Ballot: Luis Tiant Jr.

The Baseball Hall of Fame recently announced their 2015 Veterans' ballot. One player on the ballot is Luis Tiant Jr..

The first table below presents Luis Tiant Jr.'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 Jr. Basic Player Won-Lost Records
												Value Decomposition
1964	CLE	23	19	9.2	6.9	0.571	1.4	2.2	8.5	7.6	0.527	0.7	1.5
1965	CLE	24	41	13.0	13.1	0.499	0.4	1.5	13.0	13.1	0.497	0.3	1.5
1966	CLE	25	46	11.6	10.0	0.537	1.1	2.2	11.1	10.6	0.512	0.5	1.6
1967	CLE	26	33	14.2	12.4	0.534	1.4	2.5	13.5	13.1	0.507	0.7	1.8
1968	CLE	27	34	18.8	12.7	0.598	3.6	4.9	18.0	13.5	0.571	2.8	4.0
1969	CLE	28	38	16.1	20.9	0.436	-1.8	-0.1	16.7	20.3	0.450	-1.3	0.4
1970	MIN	29	18	6.3	5.2	0.549	0.8	1.3	5.5	6.0	0.479	-0.0	0.5
1971	BOS	30	21	3.8	5.5	0.407	-0.8	-0.3	4.2	5.1	0.456	-0.3	0.2
1972	BOS	31	43	11.7	8.9	0.568	1.7	2.7	11.1	9.6	0.536	1.0	2.0
1973	BOS	32	35	17.8	13.6	0.567	2.1	3.5	17.2	14.2	0.548	1.5	2.9
1974	BOS	33	38	20.1	13.5	0.599	3.3	4.8	19.2	14.4	0.571	2.4	3.9
1975	BOS	34	35	15.5	13.4	0.536	1.1	2.4	15.0	14.0	0.518	0.5	1.9
1976	BOS	35	38	17.5	15.6	0.528	0.9	2.4	17.0	16.2	0.513	0.4	1.9
1977	BOS	36	32	13.2	10.5	0.558	1.4	2.6	12.3	11.4	0.520	0.5	1.7
1978	BOS	37	32	13.3	10.1	0.567	1.6	2.7	12.4	11.0	0.529	0.7	1.8
1979	NYA	38	30	11.4	9.2	0.553	1.1	2.0	11.0	9.6	0.535	0.7	1.6
1980	NYA	39	25	7.5	7.6	0.497	-0.0	0.6	7.8	7.3	0.516	0.2	0.9
1981	PIT	40	9	2.9	3.9	0.431	-0.4	-0.1	3.5	3.3	0.515	0.2	0.5
1982	CAL	41	6	1.7	1.9	0.464	-0.1	0.0	1.7	1.9	0.467	-0.1	0.1
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			573	225.8	194.9	0.537	18.6	37.8	218.6	202.1	0.520	11.5	30.6
			------	------	------				------	------
PostSeason (career)			6	2.8	1.1	0.721		1.1	2.3	1.6	0.595		0.6
			------	------	------	------		------	------	------	------		------
COMBINED			579	228.6	196.0	0.537		38.8	221.0	203.7	0.520		31.2

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.

The player most similar to Luis Tiant in career value, as measured by Player won-lost records, is one of those 19 pitchers: Catfish Hunter, who was elected to the Hall of Fame in his third year of eligibility in 1987, the year before Tiant debuted on the ballot.

Hunter and Tiant are very similar in traditional statistics as well. In fact, Hunter is Tiant's most similar pitcher at Baseball-Reference as well. Hunter won 20 games in a season 5 (consecutive) times, but only led the league in ERA once, and never had a season ERA below 2. But for their entire careers, Hunter had only 5 more traditional pitcher wins than Tiant and an ERA only 0.04 lower.

In terms of awards, however, Hunter was much more highly regarded than Tiant: he beat him in All-Star selections 8-3, and Hunter had 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-place finishes in Cy Young voting, compared to Tiant's 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-place finishes in the only three years in which he got votes. And, of course, Catfish Hunter was elected to the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA, in his third year of eligibility, while Luis Tiant was not.

So, how similar were Tiant and Hunter? The next table compares the career records of Luis Tiant and Catfish Hunter.

Season	Games	pWins	pLoss	Win Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL	Games	pWins	pLoss	Win Pct.	pWOPA	pWORL
	Luis Tiant Jr.						Catfish Hunter
1964	19	9.2	6.9	0.571	1.4	2.2
1965	41	13.0	13.1	0.499	0.4	1.5	32	7.4	9.5	0.437	-0.9	-0.1
1966	46	11.6	10.0	0.537	1.1	2.2	30	11.5	13.4	0.460	-0.6	0.5
1967	33	14.2	12.4	0.534	1.4	2.5	37	17.3	16.8	0.507	0.9	2.3
1968	34	18.8	12.7	0.598	3.6	4.9	39	14.4	14.4	0.499	0.5	1.6
1969	38	16.1	20.9	0.436	-1.8	-0.1	42	15.7	16.6	0.487	0.1	1.6
1970	18	6.3	5.2	0.549	0.8	1.3	43	16.1	15.8	0.505	0.7	2.1
1971	21	3.8	5.5	0.407	-0.8	-0.3	38	20.7	15.4	0.574	3.4	4.9
1972	43	11.7	8.9	0.568	1.7	2.7	39	19.5	13.7	0.588	3.5	5.0
1973	35	17.8	13.6	0.567	2.1	3.5	37	14.1	11.9	0.542	1.1	2.3
1974	38	20.1	13.5	0.599	3.3	4.8	41	17.8	13.2	0.575	2.3	3.7
1975	35	15.5	13.4	0.536	1.1	2.4	39	19.2	14.1	0.576	2.5	4.1
1976	38	17.5	15.6	0.528	0.9	2.4	36	15.2	15.4	0.498	-0.1	1.3
1977	32	13.2	10.5	0.558	1.4	2.6	22	8.0	9.1	0.468	-0.6	0.3
1978	32	13.3	10.1	0.567	1.6	2.7	21	8.3	7.1	0.539	0.6	1.3
1979	30	11.4	9.2	0.553	1.1	2.0	19	4.9	6.9	0.416	-1.0	-0.5
1980	25	7.5	7.6	0.497	-0.0	0.6
1981	9	2.9	3.9	0.431	-0.4	-0.1
1982	6	1.7	1.9	0.464	-0.1	0.0
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER RECORDS	573	225.8	194.9	0.537	18.6	37.8	515	210.0	193.2	0.521	12.6	30.4

The similarity between Tiant's and Hunter's career is fairly obvious. But it's also fairly obvious that Tiant actually had the (slightly) more valuable career, at least as measured by pWins over either positional average or replacement level, although Hunter's top two seasons - 1971 and 1972 - were better than Tiant's best season - 1974.

Having a better career than a Hall-of-Famer is a pretty good Hall-of-Fame case. On the other hand, Catfish Hunter is viewed by many people as one of the weaker Hall-of-Fame choices made by the BBWAA.

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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