Baseball Player Won-Loss Records
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Steve Carlton

Hall-of-Famers as Seen Through Player Won-Lost Records: Steve Carlton

Steve Carlton was elected to the Hall of Fame in his 1st year of eligibility, 1994, with 95.6% of the vote.

Five highlights of Steve Carlton's career: The first two tables below present Steve Carlton's career as measured by Player won-lost records, in and out of context.

Basic Player Won-Lost Records
Value Decomposition
Season Team Age Games pWins pLosses pWORL pWOPA
1965SLN20
15
0.90.90.1-0.0
1966SLN21
9
3.23.20.60.2
1967SLN22
30
13.011.04.12.6
1968SLN23
35
14.214.12.60.9
1969SLN24
32
16.115.13.92.0
1970SLN25
34
16.017.81.1-0.9
1971SLN26
37
18.616.15.53.4
1972PHI27
41
25.014.913.711.3
1973PHI28
40
18.521.60.5-1.8
1974PHI29
39
18.116.05.03.1
1975PHI30
37
16.216.22.91.1
1976PHI31
35
17.012.67.15.4
1977PHI32
36
20.315.67.85.7
1978PHI33
34
15.515.42.81.0
1979PHI34
36
16.815.04.83.0
1980PHI35
38
19.813.29.77.8
1981PHI36
24
11.48.34.93.7
1982PHI37
38
21.515.59.47.3
1983PHI38
37
17.516.93.91.9
1984PHI39
34
12.911.93.32.0
1985PHI40
16
4.76.9-1.0-1.7
41
32
10.313.9-1.6-3.0
42
32
7.612.3-3.3-4.7
1988MIN43
4
0.51.5-0.9-1.0
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
CAREER (reg. season)
745
335.6305.986.949.2
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
PostSeason (career)
16
6.86.61.40.6
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
COMBINED
761
342.3312.488.349.8


Expected Player Won-Lost Records
Value Decomposition
Season Team Age Games eWins eLosses eWORL eWOPA
1965SLN20
15
0.90.90.1-0.0
1966SLN21
9
3.33.10.70.3
1967SLN22
30
12.112.02.40.9
1968SLN23
35
14.114.22.40.7
1969SLN24
32
16.514.84.62.7
1970SLN25
34
17.016.83.21.2
1971SLN26
37
16.718.02.0-0.1
1972PHI27
41
23.616.411.08.7
1973PHI28
40
19.620.52.80.4
1974PHI29
39
17.516.64.02.1
1975PHI30
37
16.016.42.70.8
1976PHI31
35
15.813.84.83.1
1977PHI32
36
19.616.46.44.3
1978PHI33
34
15.615.23.11.3
1979PHI34
36
16.515.34.32.5
1980PHI35
38
18.514.57.35.4
1981PHI36
24
10.98.84.23.0
1982PHI37
38
19.817.26.14.0
1983PHI38
37
18.016.45.03.0
1984PHI39
34
12.512.32.71.3
1985PHI40
16
5.26.4-0.1-0.8
41
32
10.313.9-1.5-2.9
42
32
8.711.2-1.0-2.4
1988MIN43
4
0.51.5-0.9-1.1
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
CAREER (reg. season)
745
328.8312.676.138.4
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
PostSeason (career)
16
6.76.71.20.4
------ ------ ------ ------ ------
COMBINED
761
335.5319.377.338.8


Steve Carlton had a brilliant career, winning 4 Cy Young awards (1972, 1977, 1980, and 1982, making 10 All-Star teams, with 329 traditional pitching wins (11th all-time). And Player won-lost records agree. The next table shows the top 40 players in pWins over replacement level (pWORL) for whom I have calculated Player won-lost records.

Top 40 Players, career pWORL
Player pWins pLosses pWOPA pWORL
1Babe Ruth410.9236.0161.2195.2
2Barry Bonds466.8310.6136.5174.4
3Willie Mays465.3329.8116.5156.6
4Hank Aaron496.7369.198.5142.5
5Mickey Mantle354.1227.5112.2141.9
6Mel Ott419.7295.2103.6140.8
7Ted Williams373.0250.0104.3136.6
8Roger Clemens316.9228.694.6131.3
9Stan Musial424.1311.388.2126.2
10Lou Gehrig304.3183.899.6124.8
11Joe L. Morgan371.9293.984.9117.6
12Greg Maddux327.2271.777.9115.0
13Alex Rodriguez373.8298.781.2114.9
14Warren Spahn351.1294.874.3113.8
15Lefty Grove261.0187.584.0112.3
16Joe DiMaggio287.1193.184.5109.4
17Jimmie Foxx301.3200.381.9108.1
18Frank Robinson398.0302.570.9106.8
19Albert Pujols359.9267.371.8104.3
20Randy 'Big Unit' Johnson279.8221.069.8102.9
21Rickey Henderson428.4350.362.5100.5
22Mike Schmidt338.5257.671.099.7
23Eddie Mathews320.7240.970.599.1
24Chipper Jones336.2257.669.698.6
25Tom Seaver306.9258.265.198.6
26Pee Wee Reese299.9239.268.096.0
27Derek Jeter367.7323.161.294.8
28Al Kaline380.5299.258.693.2
29Reggie Jackson370.0295.858.492.6
30Manny Ramirez320.0247.660.288.9
31Jim Palmer241.5186.161.988.7
32Yogi Berra246.3182.566.188.4
33Bob Gibson262.4218.458.787.4
34Steve Carlton335.6305.949.286.9
35Carl Yastrzemski430.9360.245.585.7
36Rogers Hornsby258.5197.561.785.2
37Pedro J. Martinez192.4137.862.684.7
38Cal Ripken382.3351.649.284.5
39Duke Snider270.3198.759.884.2
40Al Simmons323.3253.853.883.6


A (Tepid) Defense of the Win: Steve Carlton's 1972 Season
There is a move among many sabermetrically inclined fans to "Kill the Win" (or #KilltheWin as the kids are writing things these days). I am sabermetrically inclined and I can appreciate the sentiment. But, having said that, I am also an afficianado of baseball history and the pitcher win has an important place in that history. I also think that pitcher wins can have some information and/or help to provide some context.

Consider, for example, Steve Carlton's 1972 season. Steve Carlton had a monster season in 1972. He led the National League with 346.1 innings pitched, 41 games started, 30 complete games, 310 strikeouts, and a 1.97 ERA. He won the first of his four Cy Young awards that year in a unanimous vote.

Those are all impressive numbers, but what was the most striking thing about Steve Carlton's 1972 season was his won-lost record. Steve Carlton went 27-10 for a team that went 30-85 in games that Carlton did not start. That's a .261 winning percentage, which works out to a 42-120 record over 162 games - which would tie the 1962 New York Mets' record for losses in a season (the Mets won only 40 games, though).

What made Steve Carlton's 1972 season so impressive was how many wins he produced for a team that was starved for them - and not just theoretical wins, but actual wins.

Of course, pitcher wins are not without their flaws: the largest flaw being that pitchers are not solely responsible for team wins (and losses). Pitchers are not even mainly responsible for team wins. If Player won-lost records are to be believed - and, of course, they are - pitching only accounts for about 39% of total pWins (over replacement level).

The solution, then, is not to "kill" the win, but to expand the win to encompass the other 61% of what leads to winning: batting, baserunning, and fielding.

And that is what I have done with Player won-lost records: pWins tie to real wins, but accurately distribute those wins to all of the players who contributed to them.
Meanwhile, back to Steve Carlton's 1972 season. The next table shows the top 10 players in single-season pWins over replacement level among all seasons for which I have calculated Player won-lost records.

Top 10 Players, Single-Season pWORL
Player Season pWins pLosses pWOPA pWORL
1Babe Ruth192731.414.815.518.0
2Babe Ruth192328.412.814.816.9
3Babe Ruth192129.114.413.816.1
4Barry Bonds200128.315.212.314.5
5Babe Ruth192829.116.011.914.3
6Ted Williams194628.515.212.014.3
7Lefty Grove193122.811.612.114.2
8Sandy Koufax196525.014.511.814.2
9Al Simmons192928.115.211.713.9
10Al Simmons193027.114.411.613.8


Steve Carlton's 1972 season was historically great.

Article last updated: May 25, 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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