Jim Bunning

Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Jim Bunning

Hall-of-Famers as Seen Through Player Won-Lost Records: Jim Bunning

Jim Bunning was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans' Committee in 1996 after missing induction by four votes in his 12th time on the BBWAA ballot (in 1988).

Five highlights of Jim Bunning's career:

Jim Bunning was named to the All-Star team in seven seasons. He started three games – in 1957, 1961, and 1962 – all for the American League. Bunning received MVP votes five times.

Bunning received Cy Young votes only once in his career, finishing second in 1967. Before 1967, a single Cy Young award was given for all of major-league baseball. Cy Young voting also only allowed for a single-person ballot – voters voted for one candidate with no second-place, third-place, etc. votes. Bunning received one first-place vote in 1967 as Mike McCormick of the San Francisco Giants won the first NL-only Cy Young award.

Bunning earned 20 traditional pitcher wins one time, in 1957. He won exactly 19 games four times in five seasons between 1962 and 1966. Bunning led his league in games started, shutouts, and innings pitched twice each. He led his league in strikeouts three times.

On July 20, 1958, pitching for the Detroit Tigers, Bunning threw a no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox (2 walks, 12 strikeouts). On June 21, 1964, pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies, Bunning threw a perfect game (10 strikeouts) against the New York Mets. Bunning was the first pitcher since Cy Young to throw a no-hitter in both leagues. His perfect game was the first by a National League pitcher since 1880.

In his career, Jim Bunning won 118 games in the American League and 106 games in the National League. Bunning was the first pitcher to win 100 or more games in both leagues since 1900.

The first two tables below present Jim Bunning'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
1955	DET	23	15	3.1	5.6	-1.8	-2.3
1956	DET	24	15	3.3	2.3	1.5	1.1
1957	DET	25	45	17.9	14.1	6.6	4.7
1958	DET	26	36	14.6	14.7	2.5	0.7
1959	DET	27	40	16.0	16.4	2.5	0.6
1960	DET	28	38	15.0	13.6	4.1	2.4
1961	DET	29	38	18.4	14.4	6.9	4.9
1962	DET	30	43	18.1	14.3	6.7	4.7
1963	DET	31	40	14.9	16.2	1.7	-0.2
1964	PHI	32	41	18.0	13.6	7.4	5.4
1965	PHI	33	39	19.3	14.2	8.2	6.1
1966	PHI	34	43	20.0	16.8	6.6	4.3
1967	PHI	35	40	19.2	15.1	7.2	5.1
1968	PIT	36	27	8.2	12.0	-2.1	-3.3
+– 1969		37	34	12.6	12.8	2.1	0.6
	LAN		9	2.7	2.9	0.4	0.0
	PIT		25	9.8	9.9	1.8	0.6
1970	PHI	38	35	11.8	13.1	0.9	-0.5
1971	PHI	39	31	7.4	9.1	-0.3	-1.4
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			600	237.7	218.2	60.9	33.1
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			600	237.7	218.2	60.9	33.1

Season	Team	Age	Games	eWins	eLosses	eWORL	eWOPA

Expected Player Won-Lost Records
						Value Decomposition
1955	DET	23	15	3.3	5.3	-1.2	-1.8
1956	DET	24	15	2.7	2.9	0.4	-0.0
1957	DET	25	45	16.6	15.4	4.2	2.3
1958	DET	26	36	14.4	14.9	2.2	0.5
1959	DET	27	40	15.8	16.5	2.3	0.4
1960	DET	28	38	15.8	12.7	5.8	4.1
1961	DET	29	38	17.1	15.6	5.0	3.0
1962	DET	30	43	16.7	15.7	4.1	2.1
1963	DET	31	40	14.5	16.7	0.9	-1.1
1964	PHI	32	41	16.7	14.9	5.1	3.1
1965	PHI	33	39	18.3	15.2	6.4	4.3
1966	PHI	34	43	19.9	17.0	6.4	4.1
1967	PHI	35	40	18.6	15.7	6.2	4.2
1968	PIT	36	27	8.4	11.8	-1.6	-2.8
+– 1969		37	34	12.4	12.9	2.1	0.5
	LAN		9	2.7	3.0	0.2	-0.1
	PIT		25	9.8	10.0	1.8	0.6
1970	PHI	38	35	12.4	12.5	2.2	0.8
1971	PHI	39	31	8.1	8.3	1.2	0.1
			------	------	------	------	------
CAREER (reg. season)			600	231.9	224.1	51.7	23.8
			------	------	------	------	------
PostSeason (career)			0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
			------	------	------	------	------
COMBINED			600	231.9	224.1	51.7	23.8

Jim Bunning was, I think, somewhat underappreciated. This is evident, for example, in his failure to get elected to the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA (although he came damn close). He also received only a single Cy Young vote in his career, in 1967. This was largely due to the fact that Cy Young ballots were only one player long during Bunning's career (i.e., it was impossible to receive a 2nd-place vote in Cy Young balloting prior to 1970).

Jim Bunning's Prime: 1957 - 1967

In fact, however, Jim Bunning was one of the best players in Major League Baseball through his prime. The next table shows the top 10 players from 1957 through 1967 as measured by pWins over either positional average or replacement level.

		pWins over Positional Average Top 10 Players						pWins over Replacement Level Top 10 Players
	Player	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL		Player	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL
1	Willie Mays	278.1	191.6	75.8	99.3	1	Willie Mays	278.1	191.6	75.8	99.3
2	Mickey Mantle	209.8	136.5	64.6	82.0	2	Hank Aaron	274.7	199.3	59.2	82.8
3	Hank Aaron	274.7	199.3	59.2	82.8	3	Mickey Mantle	209.8	136.5	64.6	82.0
4	Eddie Mathews	216.8	163.7	47.0	66.0	4	Eddie Mathews	216.8	163.7	47.0	66.0
5	Frank Robinson	246.1	185.2	44.4	65.9	5	Frank Robinson	246.1	185.2	44.4	65.9
6	Juan Marichal	133.8	101.1	40.0	54.2	6	Jim Bunning	191.5	163.4	38.9	60.5
7	Jim Bunning	191.5	163.4	38.9	60.5	7	Al Kaline	221.1	170.4	37.0	56.6
8	Sandy Koufax	150.8	119.8	38.8	55.8	8	Sandy Koufax	150.8	119.8	38.8	55.8
9	Al Kaline	221.1	170.4	37.0	56.6	9	Juan Marichal	133.8	101.1	40.0	54.2
10	Whitey Ford	141.0	112.8	35.6	51.2	10	Whitey Ford	141.0	112.8	35.6	51.2

A case could be made (using pWORL) that Jim Bunning was the best pitcher in baseball over this 11-year period. Every player in the above table is in the Hall of Fame (all deservedly so, in my opinion).

Best Players to Never Make the Postseason

One reason why Jim Bunning is, I think, somewhat underrated, is that Jim Bunning never played for a playoff team. He came closest in 1964 when his team, the Philadelphia Phillies blew a 6-1/2 game lead with 12 to play as they lost 10 straight, due in large part to Manager Gene Mauch seriously overworking Bunning (who started 10 of the Phillies final 33 games from September 1st onward, completing 5 of them). The final table shows the top 10 players who never appeared in a postseason game, ranked by regular-season pWORL.

	Player	pWins	pLosses	pWOPA	pWORL
1	Fergie Jenkins	285.0	252.3	44.4	77.4
2	Minnie Minoso	265.9	211.6	38.1	62.7
3	Wes Ferrell	186.0	154.0	41.4	61.4
4	Jim Bunning	237.7	218.2	33.1	60.9
5	Ted Lyons	249.0	231.9	30.4	59.7
6	Luke Appling	323.8	306.5	25.1	57.8
7	Ron Santo	293.3	259.0	25.6	53.2
8	Mel Harder	210.3	193.5	27.1	52.6
9	Emil 'Dutch' Leonard	192.0	172.9	28.9	52.6
10	Ernie Banks	310.5	279.6	21.2	51.0

Article last updated: May 14, 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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