This is the continuation of my ATP (All Time Pirates) series but I have opted to change the name to make it a little more obvious what is covered in the topic. As a quick recap this is a running series of mine that digs into the Pirates past and takes a look at it from various different angles. This particular exercise is looking at it from the player's place of birth. Each US state, the District of Columbia and each foreign country will be investigated in the attempt to build a team. For more specifics check out the introductory post here.
Part XII is the last section of the exercise before we get to the overall team power rankings which will close this series out. In this part I take a look at pitchers from class A locations. Class A locations are simply the states of Pennsylvania and California because they have produced a ton of Pittsburgh Pirates over the years. Together they account for 166 pitchers and that's more than the combined total from the 31 states who have produced the least pitchers for the Pirates. Since there are so many these states will have an other section briefly mentioning notable pitchers who failed to make the 13 man staff.
California
Rotation and Relief Ace
#1: Ray Kremer
#2: Dock Ellis
#3: Larry French
#4: Gerrit Cole
RA: Rod Scurry
Reserves
SP: Bob Walk
SP: James McDonald
SP: Nelson Briles
SP: Jim Tobin
SP: Tiny Bonham
SP: Jeff Karstens
SP/RP: Larry Demery
RP: John Grabow
Others
SP/RP: Bill Werle
SP: Bob Chesnes
SP/RP: George Witt
SP/RP: Erv Kantlehner
SP: Vance Worley
SP/RP: Vic Lombardi
SP: Mark Redman
RP: Jim Gott
RP: Justin Wilson
RP: Jeff Robinson
Notes: Kremer pitched 10 years for the Pirates from 1924-1933. During the beginning of his tenure he was an excellent pitcher even finishing as high as third in the MVP voting but he didn’t get his chance with the Pirates until age 31 so it was a relatively quick drop off and the second half of his Pirates career saw him drop off to more of an average pitcher. Still the longevity of his career (almost 2000 IP) and his status as a top of the rotation arm to begin his career is just enough for him to have ace status on this stacked California squad. Dock Ellis pitched for the Pirates for 9 years in the late 60s and 70s and was arguably the team’s ace during their 1971 World Series Championship season. Throughout his Pirates tenure (except for his cameo appearance in 1979) he was consistently an above average arm in the rotation.
Larry French pitched for the Pirates from 1929-1934 and though he spent a small part of his career as a reliever he was primarily a starter and a very good one posting a 3.50 ERA in over 1500 innings. For the final spot in the rotation the selection of Gerrit Cole over Bob Walk might raise some eye brows but Cole has earned the spot. Cole has significantly fewer innings than Walk but has been an ace where as Walk was just a solid mid rotation arm. California didn’t have much to choose from in terms of a relief ace but Rod Scurry who pitched 6 seasons for the Pirates in the mid 1980s as a middle relief pitcher is the best of the lot. He threw 377.1 innings in that time and posted an ERA in the low 3s.
The reserves feature Bob Walk who spent 10 seasons with the Pirates as a very solid starting pitcher but the presence of Cole pushes him out of the rotation. Walk did have two very good years but the rest were around average. None of the other reserves really stand out. Briles was a good pitcher for the Pirates in the early 70s posting an ERA a hair below 3 in roughly 550 innings. Karstens and McDonald add a bit of a more modern touch to the group as the two were amongst the more dependable arms during the lean early years of the Neal Huntington era. Jim Tobin and Tiny Bonham were fine middle of the rotation arms for the Pirates for a few seasons a piece during the 1930s and 1940s respectively. Demery from the 70s and Grabow from the 2000s gives the reserves some respectable relief pitcher depth.
As for the others Bill Werel threw 590 innings for the Pirates as a back of the rotation starter from 1949-1952. Chesnes like Werel was also a back of the rotation arm for the Pirates around 1950. Kantlehner has great looking numbers but they came from the dead ball era so they are actually below average considering the time period. Worley and Wilson add a bit of a modern touch to the group and I’m sure require very little introduction here. The rest of the group pitched at least 140 innings for the Pirates and did an admirable job posting respectable lines which made them useful pitchers for their eras.
Pennsylvania
Rotation and Relief Ace
#1: Frank Killen
#2: Bob Moose
#3: John Smiley
#4: Ron Kline
RA: Stan Belinda
Reserves
SP: Mark Baldwin
SP: Patsy Flaherty
SP: Al Mamaux
SP: Rube Waddell
SP: Marty O'Toole
SP/RP: Steve Swetonic
SP/RP: Don Schwall
RP: Bruce Dal Canton
Others
SP/RP: Bob Purkey
SP: Jim Gardner
SP: Ad Gumbert
SP: Billy Rhines
SP: Mel Queen
SP: AldGumbert
SP: Doc Medich
SP/RP: Johnny Miljus
RP: Bobby Shantz
RP: Nellie King
RP: Joe Beimel
Notes: Killen pitched for the Pirates from 1893-1898 and was generally considered one of the better pitchers of that time period. He racked up over 1600 innings during his time with the Pirates and picked up 112 wins. Moose brings us into the modern era of baseball as he played for the Pirates from 1967-1976. From 1968-1972 he was an above average starter and during the rest of his tenure he was more a middle to back of the rotation guy. He is a good solid pitcher but being second on Pennsylvania speaks of a club with a ton of depth but little elite talent.
Moving even farther into the modern era we get John Smiley who pitched for the Pirates from 1986-1991. He had a rough year in 1990 which drags down his overall numbers with the Pirates but generally speaking he was a top of the rotation guy and was key to the Pirates 1991 division crown finishing 3rd in the Cy Young voting that season. Bringing up the rear of the rotation is Ron Kline who pitched parts of 8 seasons with the Pirates during two different stints from 1952 to 1969. During his first stint he was a typical middle of the rotation arm but in his return season of 1968 he put up spectacular numbers even considering it was the year of the pitcher. He only pitched 112.2 innings that year but his 1.68 ERA really stands out. In the relief ace role is Stan Belinda who served as the closer of the early 1990 Pirate teams. He wasn’t a lights out closer but he was a good dependable one who posted solid numbers.
Mark Baldwin was the Pirates go to starter for the two years in the 1890s before they acquired Frank Killen. He was a solid pitcher but Killen overshadowed him and took the goto pitcher job away from him. Flaherty, Mamaux and O’Toole were all pitchers for the Pirates during the dead ball era so their numbers all look great but roughly speaking for the era they were all just average pitchers. Rube Waddell is probably the best pitcher on this entire staff and is a member of the Hall of Fame but unfortunately most of that work came after leaving the Pirates and while with the Philiadelphia Athletics. Waddell’s only full season with the Pirates was 1900 when he posted an eye popping ERA of 2.37 which was good for an ERA+ of 153 (meaning he was 53% better than league average). Waddell was truly a man out of time as he was a dominant strikeout pitcher in an era where those just simply didn’t exist. Swetonic and Schwall each pitched a handful of seasons with the Pirates in the 1930s and 1960s respectively serving as a swing man out of the bullpen while also picking up a handful of starts. Bruce Dal Canton pitched for the Pirates from 1967-1970 as a middle reliever out of the bullpen.
As for the others of note Queen and Gimbert finished with the most innings of the bunch but both had ERAs well over 5. Beimel is I believe the most recent Pennsylvanian born pitcher to pitch for the Pirates and probably requires little introduction. Purkey was a decent starter for the Pirates back in the mid 1950s when those were hard to come by for them and Garden is another pitcher from the 19th century who posted unspectacular results but a fair amount of innings (Billy Rhines fits this description as well). The rest pitched fewer than 200 innings with the Pirates while posting decent results. One player not mentioned above is Elmer Smith who was primarily an outfielder but was also a serviceable pitcher in his spare time.
Power Rankings
2. Pennsylvania
The Pennsylvania staff features a ton of depth but is sorely lacking a true top of the rotation arm to compete with the California staff. Killen, Moose, Smiley and Kline is a good enough rotation to compete with any team in this whole exercise and not a single starter is a bad one but it’s a long stretch to call any of them a truly elite one. Belinda is a good bullpen arm and is better than anything the California team has to send out there and the reserves for Pennsylvania are overall a good bunch and are better than what California has but it’s not enough to overcome the difference atop the rotations.
1. California
This wasn’t an easy call by any stretch but Kremer and Ellis are a heck of a one-two punch atop the rotation and when you add in two very good arms in French and Cole even the slightly weaker depth of California (outside of Bob Walk) isn’t enough for Pennsylvania to pass them in the power rankings. That rotation is going to scare hitters and having a pitcher the caliber of Bob Walk to call on as a fifth starter should one be needed is just not fair.
Thanks to anyone who actually read any of my epics. There is going to be one final post to send off this topic next week ranking the 34 states/locations who are able to field 8 position players and 5 pitchers. Only those 13 individuals will be considered while compiling the rankings. THis is what these 12 massive parts have been building up too and was my primary goal with this series all along.
