A Look Back: Lima Time!

The other day, my friend Nick suggested I write an article on the most pathetic pitching seasons of recent years. Because I'm lazy, I told him to write it his damn self, so now this is happening. And if he seems bitter, he's a White Sox fan, so cut the poor guy some slack. Enjoy.

As I watched the hapless Cardinals run out Kip Wells to get shelled yet again, it raised a few questions in my mind. How have the Cardinals had that few pitching options that they had to keep giving this guy starts? In the past ten years, where would this season rank amongst the worst for starting pitchers?

Of course, every year there are pitchers called upon to make emergency starts that are bombed and sent back to AAA, or released. It’s truly special when a pitcher can maintain that level of awful pitching and keep his job long enough to make 25 starts.

After sifting through the columns of bloated ERAs, jarring home run totals, and mountains of walked batters, I submit the following sorry group. Perhaps one shouldn’t blame these pitchers for taking the ball every five days, but rather the organizations for allowing these things to happen.

B-R's Play Index yields the following for worst ERA+ between 1998-2007 (min. 25 starts):

Kip Wells' robust ERA+ of 75 places him clear of this crew. Lima is a spectacular character for a variety of reasons, including his lovely wife.

His 2005 season is truly a beacon of failure, but in some ways it was not quite his worst. In 2000, he managed to give up 48 home runs. I’m going to let that sink in. 48 home runs. That places him clearly at the top for home run rate as well, at 2.20.

Lima remarkably has three of the “Top” 15 worst seasons for home run rate in the past 10 years.

Therefore, the legend himself claims the “Lima Time Award” for his 2000 season, in which he gave up a historic 2.2 HR/9. Indeed, BR has him as the worst since 1901 amongst pitchers who qualify for the ERA title, and it’s not particularly close.

Fortunately, Lima did manage to strike out a few guys when he kept the ball in the yard. Therefore, he cannot seize the “Todd Jones Award”. That goes to Nate Cornejo of the hapless 2003 Tigers.

Another runaway winner. Cornejo went 6-17 in '03, but amazingly only an a 4.67 ERA. Interesting to note that Chien-Ming Wang's '06 season comes in seventh on this list. Even more impressive than Cornejo, Wang's ERA was just 3.63 that year, thanks to lots of ground balls and few walks.

The final award goes to Victor Zambrano, who averaged almost 6.46 BB/9 in 2004.

[Ed. note: Sorry, I have to interject here. As is made clear in the list, that's the same year the Mets traded some scrub for Zambrano. I remember Zambrano's BB/9 beign extremely high, and the theory being that pitching guru Rick Peterson would fix him. I didn't realize it was this bad. For the record, this guy actually didn't make that trade, it was Jim Duquette. And wasn't Mazzone supposed to fix Cabrera in similar fashion?]

So Kip Wells can rest easy, knowing that his atrocious 2007 season does not rank amongst these historic “greats”. Or one can look at it that he can’t even fail at a dominant rate. You decide.

Pictures: Lima, Rueter, Woody