Camilo Pascual

Camilo Pascual as Seen Through Player Won-Lost Records

The last two articles which I wrote looked at the 1959 and 1962 seasons. In both of those seasons, Camilo Pascual showed up as having one of the best seasons of any player in the major leagues. I was intrigued by a player who I had barely heard of and seems to have been largely forgotten shortly after his retirement (he received 4 Hall-of-Fame votes over two seasons) but who was nevertheless apparently one of the best players in baseball at least twice in four seasons. So, I decided to take a bit closer look at the major-league career of Camilo Pascual, and, specifically, how he looks as seen through Player won-lost records.

Looking mostly at Baseball-Reference.com and Wikipedia, here's what I know about Camilo Pascual.

He was born in Havana, Cuba

He was nicknamed "Little Potato"

He was an All-Star representative of the last original Washington Senators and first Minnesota Twins teams

He was the first 20-game winner in Minnesota Twins history

He was the starting pitcher in the first home games in Minnesota Twins and Los Angeles Angels history

He returned to Washington in 1967, making him one of nine players to play for both Washington Senators teams

His curveball was considered by some to be the best in baseball in his prime

The first table below presents Camilo Pascual'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
Camilo Pascual Basic Player Won-Lost Records
												Value Decomposition
1954	WS1	20	48	4.7	6.3	0.429	-0.7	-0.0	5.1	5.9	0.464	-0.3	0.4
1955	WS1	21	43	6.7	9.8	0.405	-1.4	-0.6	7.8	8.7	0.471	-0.3	0.5
1956	WS1	22	43	10.7	16.8	0.388	-2.8	-1.4	12.5	15.0	0.455	-1.0	0.4
1957	WS1	23	32	10.5	11.9	0.470	-0.4	0.5	11.2	11.2	0.498	0.2	1.1
1958	WS1	24	31	11.6	11.0	0.514	0.6	1.5	11.8	10.9	0.520	0.7	1.6
1959	WS1	25	32	16.3	13.0	0.556	2.2	3.4	17.1	12.2	0.583	3.0	4.2
1960	WS1	26	27	10.9	8.6	0.560	1.5	2.3	10.8	8.7	0.553	1.4	2.2
1961	MIN	27	35	16.9	16.6	0.504	0.6	2.0	17.7	15.8	0.528	1.4	2.8
1962	MIN	28	34	19.2	13.8	0.581	3.3	4.7	18.4	14.6	0.558	2.6	4.0
1963	MIN	29	33	17.3	12.8	0.576	2.9	4.2	16.4	13.7	0.546	2.0	3.3
1964	MIN	30	36	17.6	16.1	0.523	1.3	3.0	16.9	16.7	0.503	0.7	2.4
1965	MIN	31	27	9.5	9.7	0.493	0.3	1.1	9.6	9.6	0.499	0.4	1.2
1966	MIN	32	21	6.3	7.4	0.459	-0.3	0.3	6.3	7.3	0.463	-0.3	0.3
1967	WS2	33	28	10.5	10.4	0.502	0.4	1.2	10.4	10.4	0.500	0.3	1.2
1968	WS2	34	31	12.8	12.7	0.500	0.4	1.4	12.9	12.6	0.508	0.6	1.6
+– 1969		35	22	3.9	6.0	0.396	-0.9	-0.4	3.8	6.2	0.381	-1.1	-0.6
	CIN		5	0.1	0.1	0.476	-0.0	0.0	0.1	0.2	0.292	-0.1	-0.0
	WS2		17	3.8	5.9	0.393	-0.9	-0.5	3.7	6.0	0.383	-1.0	-0.6
1970	LAN	36	10	0.2	0.3	0.414	-0.0	-0.0	0.2	0.2	0.474	-0.0	0.0
1971	CLE	37	9	1.1	1.0	0.516	0.1	0.2	1.2	0.9	0.559	0.2	0.3
------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			542	186.7	184.3	0.503	7.0	23.4	190.2	180.7	0.513	10.5	26.9
			------	------	------				------	------
PostSeason (career)			1	0.4	0.7	0.348		-0.1	0.4	0.6	0.400		-0.0
			------	------	------	------		------	------	------	------		------
COMBINED			543	187.0	184.9	0.503		23.3	190.6	181.3	0.513		26.9

Camilo Pascual's Peak

From 1959 - 1964, Camilo Pascual was named to the All-Star team 5 times in 6 seasons, received MVP votes 3 times, led the league in complete games, shutouts, and strikeouts three times apiece, and recorded 20 traditional pitching wins twice.

The next table shows the top 10 players from 1959 - 1964 in pWins over replacement level.

Player	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL
	Top Players, 1959 - 1964 (ranked by pWORL)
Willie Mays	155.4	107.8	19.8	30.4
Mickey Mantle	119.3	73.4	19.7	27.5
Eddie Mathews	125.2	91.4	15.0	23.6
Hank Aaron	148.4	111.1	13.0	23.3
Whitey Ford	97.8	73.1	15.2	22.8
Frank Robinson	134.4	98.4	12.4	21.8
Roger Maris	116.2	82.1	12.5	20.5
Larry Jackson	103.6	86.7	11.6	20.0
Camilo Pascual	98.3	80.9	11.9	19.7
Ken Boyer	130.4	107.0	9.9	19.4

Most Similar Players to Camilo Pascual

The next table shows the ten players most similar to Camilo Pascual in career Player won-lost records (since 1947).

Player	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA	eWORL
		Most Similar Players to Camilo Pascual in Value (since 1947)
Camilo Pascual	542	186.7	184.3	7.0	23.4	190.2	180.7	10.5	26.9
Javier Vazquez	458	178.4	173.5	6.7	24.5	181.5	170.4	9.8	27.7
Mel Stottlemyre Sr.	366	164.1	151.9	10.5	24.3	163.1	153.0	9.5	23.2
Jake Peavy	393	151.3	143.7	7.8	22.6	153.8	141.3	10.2	25.1
Burt Hooton	481	156.4	151.5	6.9	20.2	155.7	152.1	6.2	19.6
Frank Viola	421	173.9	163.0	6.8	22.9	173.3	163.6	6.2	22.3
Cole Hamels	402	161.8	143.9	13.6	28.8	157.6	148.0	9.4	24.7
Lew Burdette	666	184.5	173.6	10.9	27.1	181.2	176.8	7.7	23.8
Fernando Valenzuela	474	188.4	182.0	9.3	25.8	185.3	185.1	6.2	22.7
Mark Buehrle	518	195.5	175.4	10.8	30.7	193.7	177.1	9.1	28.9
John Burkett	446	160.9	161.2	3.4	19.7	162.5	159.6	5.0	21.3

That's a pretty good set of players. It includes three Cy Young award winners and two World Series MVPs. Still, most of these players were not as good, at their best, as Camilo Pascual was at his.

The six seasons of Camilo Pascual's peak, 1959 - 1964, were Camilo Pascual's age-25 through age-30 seasons. Here are the top 10 players most similar to Pascual from ages 25 through 30 in terms of pWOPA, pWORL, eWOPA, and eWORL (regardless of how they accumulated them in terms of offense vs. defense or position) since 1916.

Player	Games	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA	eWORL
		Most Similar Players to Camilo Pascual in Value Ages 25 through 30 (since 1947)
Camilo Pascual	197	98.3	80.9	11.9	19.7	97.4	81.7	11.0	18.9
Scott Rolen	786	109.3	83.7	11.8	19.5	108.4	84.6	10.9	18.6
Lance Berkman	911	129.3	97.7	11.7	20.6	128.7	98.3	11.1	20.0
George Foster	820	118.9	89.7	11.3	19.4	118.3	90.3	10.7	18.8
Johnny Bench	851	101.1	76.9	12.3	19.2	99.7	78.3	10.9	17.8
Robin Yount	823	113.7	95.7	11.2	19.4	113.4	96.0	10.9	19.1
Frank E. Thomas	858	101.2	73.8	9.8	18.0	101.7	73.3	10.3	18.5
Bobby Grich	803	106.5	87.3	12.2	19.6	104.7	89.2	10.4	17.8
Rickey Henderson	823	124.9	96.6	12.0	20.5	125.0	96.5	12.1	20.6
Roy Halladay	173	76.6	52.7	12.1	19.2	75.0	54.3	10.6	17.6
Eddie Murray	861	108.1	77.8	12.5	19.6	105.6	80.4	10.0	17.0

That's a much better list! Five Hall-of-Famers, almost certain to become six this summer. Unfortunately for Pascual, the next table shows the career records of these same 11 players (including Pascual) outside of ages 25 through 30.

Player	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL	eWins	eLosses	eWOPA	eWORL
	Career Value, excluding Ages 25 through 30
Camilo Pascual	88.4	103.4	-4.9	3.7	92.8	99.0	-0.5	8.1
Scott Rolen	156.6	137.4	7.7	18.8	155.0	138.9	6.2	17.2
Lance Berkman	110.9	89.8	6.5	14.4	109.5	91.3	5.0	13.0
George Foster	144.8	133.5	0.9	11.5	145.2	133.2	1.2	11.9
Johnny Bench	144.7	120.4	12.4	23.0	145.0	120.1	12.6	23.3
Robin Yount	253.8	250.0	6.9	26.4	255.1	248.6	8.2	27.7
Frank E. Thomas	152.6	116.4	13.7	28.6	152.8	116.2	13.9	28.8
Bobby Grich	147.0	130.4	11.1	21.9	149.1	128.2	13.2	24.0
Rickey Henderson	302.3	257.0	16.3	38.6	304.2	255.1	18.2	40.5
Roy Halladay	94.8	80.4	8.8	17.7	93.7	81.5	7.7	16.5
Eddie Murray	237.3	207.1	6.0	25.3	232.7	211.7	1.4	20.7

Still, there are not many players that can match up any of their career with Hall-of-Famers, much less a six-year stretch where they were legitimately one of the best players in major-league baseball. Camilo Pascual can.

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.

Home List of Articles