All Time Minor League Seasons: Starting Pitchers
Finish it off with a flourish
With pitchers and catchers reporting next week, the time has come to place our focus purely on the season in front of us. So let’s finish up this week by concluding this long series on the Greatest Minor League Seasons for San Francisco Giants’ prospects. And we finish with a real bright spot in Giants’ history, the starting pitchers.
If you’d like to go back and look at previous installments:
Greatest Seasons C
Greatest Seasons 1b
Greatest Seasons 2b
Greatest Seasons 3b
Greatest Seasons SS
Greatest Seasons OF
Greatest Seasons RP
Since I don’t really like constraining myself with arbitrary rules, I’m going to switch up the format for this last piece. For one thing, I’m doing away with the distinction between guys who “made it,” and ones who didn’t. Pitching prospects are legendary for their attrition rates. They break, they bruise, the stuff fades, the human body was not created to hurl a spheroid at maximum speeds several thousand times a year. So why focus on the sad conclusions?
And secondly, because the use of pitchers has evolved tremendously over time (as we’ll see), I just don’t see any way of comparing players across time. So instead of a ranking, what we’ll do today is take a little journey through time. Along the way, we’ll meet a lot of our favorites. Although, I will say, if you’re expecting a certain Hall of Famer to show up on today’s list, you may be disappointed, because Gaylord Perry’s minor league rèsumé is curiously light. The ERAs were mostly ok, but the man showed almost no ability to miss bats. Indeed, his reliance on “pitching to contact” was so strong that the future member of the major league 3,000 Strikeout Club once threw 219 innings in a minor league season and failed to crack 100 Ks. Go figure!
1958 — Juan Marichal, Michigan City Whitecaps (Midwest League, D), 20 yr old
21-8, 1.87 ERA, 246 K, 50 BB, 245 IP, 1.020 WHIP
1958 was the very first year that such a thing as a San Francisco Giants prospect existed, so what better place to start? And whom do we find there but the greatest Giants pitcher of all time! Did I mention that pitcher usage has changed a mite over the years? Marichal was a 20-year-old Dandy making his pro debut in 1958 when he hurled 245 innings. He’d follow it up with another 271 the following year in AA, but apparently the weight of all those innings wouldn’t leave his best years in the bus leagues, as Marichal would top the 300 innings mark multiple times in his major league career, leading the league at 321 in 1963 and 325 in 1968. In all, Marichal, who was thought to be just 18 years old at the time, threw 50 more innings than any other pitcher in the league. His 24 Complete Games was such an outrageous total that he had set the league record for CG before the end of July.
But even with the large load, Marichal was still a bat missing wonder, striking out barely more than a batter per inning — the only time in his professional career he’d reach that mark. In fact, his 246 Ks as a 20 year old would be a mark he’d surpass just once as a Giant (248 in 1963). Though prodigious at enticing swing and misses, Marichal was stingy about everything else. He walked just 50 batters, giving him a ridiculous 5:1 K:BB ratio on the year. And, with just 200 hits allowed, he ended up averaging just about one baserunner per inning for the year. No surprise, then, that he paced the league in ERA. Perhaps the only surprise in his stat line was that among his 51 earned runs allowed for the year, he sprinkled 11 home runs. This tendency to match high home run totals with low ERAs wasn’t unusual — like most pitchers of his era, Marichal knew the value of challenge fastballs in low leverage situations. Marichal finished off his sensational first year by pitching the White Caps to their only two victories in the Midwest League championship series, which they lost to Waterloo 3 games to 2. Both victories were complete games, of course.
1959 — Bob Bolin, Eugene Emeralds (Northwest League, B), 20 yr old
20-8, 2.84 ERA, 271 K, 144 BB, 225 IP
Bobby Bolin would make his big league mark as a tremendously valuable swing man for the Giants of the 1960s, but it was as a starter that he put together one of the most incredible seasons in Northwest League history. The 6’5” Bolin was a true giant for his time, and he must have been an intimidating presence with his combination of true heat and enough control issues to scare you. His numbers that year were cartoonish. His 271 strikeouts didn’t just lead the league, he lead the league by nearly 100 strikeouts over second place Jack Lutz, who tagged far behind with 176. His walks were almost equally prolific. Teammate Ron Herbel’s 119 walks were the only total that came close to Bolin’s league leading 144.
Bolin started the season with a solid first half, but his second half was one for the ages. In mid-July he started a streak of six consecutive victories during which he struck out 81. Though the win streak didn’t continue, the strikeouts would pile up with vertiginous speed. He set a league record one night in Salem when he dispatched 22 hitters via the K. He’d set the league’s season record for strikeouts in early August (at just 226) and then poured it on. On August 23, he secured his 17th win with the second no-hitter of his career. The next time out he’d have to settle for just a complete game shutout — but with 15 strikeouts. That was his ninth shutout of the year — also a new league record! Now that the Emeralds are once again a part of the Giants’ organization, I’m curious to know how many of Bolin’s old records still stand — a number of them I’d guess. Perhaps Eugene should be planning a Bobby Bolin Day for later this year.
1963 — Nick DeMatteis, Decatur Commodores (Midwest League, A), 20 yr old
14-6, 1.95 ERA, 19 CG, 6 ShO, 237 K, 83 BB, 189 IP
You’ve probably never heard of Nick DeMatteis and I promised I wouldn’t fill this list with burnout cases of guys you’ve never heard of. Let DeMatteis stand for the rest then. Decatur’s Fans Field was surely an extreme pitchers’ park — the years the Giants had affiliates there produced a bevy of fantastic performances. But DeMatteis stands out above the rest, the diminutive Bronx native was only 5’9”. The left-hander led the Midwest League in complete games, shutouts, strikeouts, and ERA. His performance was good enough to get him a late-season promotion all the way up to AA, where he picked up a victory in relief in the first game of the Texas League championship for the El Paso Sun Kings. Sadly — of course, there was going to be a sadly — that was the summit of his chase after immortality. He’d be stuck in AA for the rest of his career. There would still be flashes. He threw a no-hitter late in 1964. In 1965, he returned from a two-week stint on the DL to strikeout 11 in a relief appearance. He’d start a game by striking out 7 of the first 8 hitters he saw. But inconsistency and sore arms would do their dirty work and he’d wind up just another failed dream chaser. But for that one year, there weren’t any better than Nick De Matteis.
1966 — Bob Reynolds 1966 Magic Valley Cowboys/Fresno Giants (Pioneer/Cal), 19 yr
10-1, 1.89 ERA, 7 CG, 3 ShO, 183 K, 36 BB, 114 IP
I’ve mostly tried to stay away from Rookie League campaigns for obvious reasons, I think. They’re too short, the competition is too low. But, good gravy, look at this man’s strikeouts! During his time in the Pioneer league he managed to strike out 147 batter in just 86 innings! And, unlike Bolin, Reynolds knew where it was going! In just his fourth professional outing, he struck out 18 in Ogden, walking just 2, and finishing with a complete game 1-0 victory. Amazingly, he’d equal the mark just two weeks later, once again striking out 18 Ogden hitters — so maybe we’re saying something about Ogden here. But he’d push the envelope even further a week later in Treasure Valley, striking out 20. Magic Valley, indeed! By mid-August, he’d pitched his way out of the Rookie League, earning a promotion up to the California League for the rest of the year. Rather than stumble at the big step up, Reynolds ended the year allowing just 1 run in 28 innings and striking out another 36. Rack ‘em up! Reynolds was selected by the Expos in the 1968 expansion draft and eventually wound his way to Baltimore, where he’d pitch several seasons in the Orioles bullpen, getting into three games in the ‘73 and ‘74 American League Championship Series against the A’s.
1974 — Pete Falcone + Bob Knepper, Fresno Giants (California League, A), 20 yr old
Falcone: 12-8, 2.94 ERA, 10 CG, 2 ShO, 207 K, 79 BB, 174 IP
Knepper: 20-5, 3.18 ERA, 16 CG, 2 ShO, 247 K, 238 IP
Imagine being an impressionable young Giants fan, circa 1974 (it’s pretty easy for me). It’s true, the Golden Age had turned to rust and the great stars of the 60s were faded and, mostly, gone. And two new powers had arisen in the NL West with the great Reds and Dodgers teams representing the NL in the World Series in 1972 and 1974. But, still, the Giants were replacing the old talent with a huge new wave of young stars. Gary Matthews (22 years old) was the Rookie of the Year in 1973 and second year player Garry Maddox (23) was every bit his equal. Dave Kingman had hit his age in HRs (24). The enter left-side of the infield consisted of rising young stars in Chris Speier (23) and Ed Goodson (25). And there was so much more on the way!
The 1974 Cal League Champs in Fresno were simply stacked. I talked last time about how 18-year-old Jack Clark rocketed through the minors. Catcher Gary Alexander led the league in HR (27), SLG (.584) and OPS (.995). The team had the 6th overall pick from the previous year’s draft, slick fielding Johnnie LeMaster. And the pitching! The staff dominated the league, led by two 20-year-old wunderkinds. Pete Falcone and Bob Knepper. Knepper led the league in Wins, Innings, Complete Games, Strikeouts — you name it! Falcone couldn’t quite keep up with the counting stats because the Giants moved him up to the Texas League before the year was out. They’re the only pair of 200 K teammates that the organization has had in the last 50 years, and no minor leaguer in the system has matched Knepper’s total of 247 Ks since then (only one has come close — keep reading!). Indeed, only Jason Schmidt (once), Tim Lincecum (twice), and Madison Bumgarner (once) have exceeded it at the big league level. The future was bright, man! Giants baseball in the 70s would be awesome. Bring your shades!
1977 — Phil Nastu Cedar Rapids/Waterbury Giants (Midwest/Eastern, A/AA), 22 yr
16-4, 2.10 ERA, 14 CG, 4 ShO, 201 K, 64 BB, 1.04 WHIP
The Giants didn’t even bother drafting Phil Nastu out of the University of Bridgeport (CT) in 1977. He had been signed as a free agent in the winter after he graduated. So it came as a bit of a surprise when the left-hander exploded in A ball the next spring. Nastu spent the spring and early summer toying with A ball hitters, going 10-2 with a 1.88 ERA, 6 complete games, and 134 Ks to just 36 walks in 116 innings. So, ok, maybe the college boy was a little advanced for this level. In mid-July, the Giants upped the ante, promoting Nastu to the far steeper challenge of AA Eastern League. How did Nastu respond? Apparently feeling right at home back in Connecticut, Nastu reeled off five consecutive complete game victories in his first five appearances. Two of them were shutouts. The victory streak was only stopped when Nastu dropped a 14 inning complete game, 1-0 loss (thanks for the support, guys!). Still, by the time he’d finished off the year with 100 AA innings and a 2.37 ERA, he had firmly gained the attention of the Giants front office. Before the 1978 season passed, he’d made his big league debut. And though the crafty left-hander never repeated his original burst of success in the bigs, going from from undrafted senior from a tiny college to a three-year big league career is no small achievement.
1982 — Mark Grant, Clinton Giants (Midwest League, A), 18 yr old
16-5, 2.36 ERA, 12 CG, 4 ShO, 243 K, 60 BB, 1.002 WHIP
Mark Grant precedes modern-day prospecting by a few years — Baseball America wouldn’t start constructing Top Prospects lists until 1990. But I don’t think there’s any doubt that had something like a Top 100 existed in 1982, Grant would have been the Giants’ first elite, über-prospect. The 10th overall pick of the 1981 draft out of Joliet, IL, Grant was your classic fireballing high school right-hander (the type of profile we’ve learned not to trust too much over the decades). After a modest rookie league debut, he showed exactly what the excitement was about when he made his full-season debut in 1982. The 18-year-old led all of minor league baseball with 243 strikeouts over 198.2 innings. According to the research of Matt Eddy at Baseball America, that total has only been matched one time since then — the very next year when another 18-year-old, Dwight Gooden, had what’s certain to be the final minor league 300 K season. I started this post by talking about how hard it is to compare pitchers across eras. Juan Marichal throwing 271 innings is practically a Cy Young-esque mark to our modern eyes. But having an 18-year-old throw 198 isn’t too far away from that either. Certainly, it would take some record searching to find the last 200 IP minor league season, but it definitely hasn’t happened in this century. Matt Moore, not overly-beloved of Giants fans, was the last minor leaguer to strike out 200 batters, which he did in back-to-back seasons in 2010 and 2011. Grant would go on to have a respectable big league career, throwing 638 innings and making 58 starts. But it feels like he left his very best stuff back in the Midwest League over those 200 magic innings.
1991 — Salomon Torres, Clinton Giants (Midwest League, A), 19 yr old
16-5, 1.41 ERA, 8 CG, 3 ShO, 214 K, 47 BB, 210 IP, 0.927 WHIP
AND Rick Huisman, San Jose Giants (California League, A+), 22 yr old
16-4, 1.83 ERA, 7 CG, 4 ShO, 216 K, 73 BB, 182.1 IP
The last two 200 strikeout performances by Giants’ prospects came a level apart in the same year, and both were dominant performances. Torres DID become the first elite Giants prospect — he was on Baseball America’s Top 100 in both 1992 and 1993, peaking at #22. Torres signed in the winter of 1989, and it’s possible that he actually debuted in the Dominican Summer League in 1990. As DSL records don’t go back that far, and many MLB teams were sharing DSL teams at that point, there’s no way of telling that from the statistical record. Instead it’s his Midwest campaign of 1991, that stands as his official pro debut — and what a debut it was! The 19-year-old’s 1.41 ERA led the league by nearly half a run. He also led the league in Complete Games, Innings Pitched, Wins, and, of course, Strikeouts. Quite an introduction for the skinny young Dominican. Even in those days of relatively little “prospect” news, his name was spoken reverentially by Giants’ fans, eager to see the young phenom. His Texas league campaign was nowhere near as good (his ERA jumped up to 4.21) but his momentum wasn’t stymied by that. He’d make his Giants’ debut in August of 1993 for a team badly in need of a little help from the pitching staff. It ended up a tragic story, of course. Torres was the losing pitcher in 4 of his final 5 starts on the year — the only four games the Giants lost over their final 18. And succumbing to so much expectation under such highly pressurized situation seems to have poisoned his Giants career, which was over almost before it began. His story would be yet another of bitter disappointment were it not for an astonishing second act that started in Korea, following three years of retirement, that ultimately led him to successful six-year run with the Pirates.
Rick Huisman, on the other hand, was never highly touted. He went undrafted out of high school and walked on at tiny Lewis University in Illinois. He performed well enough there to earn a 3rd round draft choice, but Rick was never going to land on a top 100 list. But his dominance of the California League was statistically very similar to Torres’ of the Midwest League. He was older, of course, which matters, but he still led the league (by a lot) in strikeouts, as well as wins, shutouts and innings. He’d catch the eye of Giants officials as well and would get to AAA by the end of the next year. But arm issues would slow his progress. Still, in the end, he’d get into 29 big league games with the Kansas City Royals. Which story would you prefer to be? The hyped kid who is remembered as a disappointment and later redemption-tale, or the over-achiever whose triumph was to just to get there at all?
2001 — Boof Bonser, Hagerstown Suns (Sally, A), 19 yr old
16-4, 2.49 ERA, 178 K, 61 BB, 134 IP
My memory of Bonser is really similar to the writeup above for Mark Grant, a kid who struck out everybody and threw a ton of innings and was never really the same again. In some ways, their major league careers (and high minors careers) really are fairly similar. Grant managed 600 innings in MLB, Bonser was just over 400; their FIPs are both around 4.30. The ERAs were 4-5.00 range. They were teenage flamethrowers who didn’t quite translate that into success at the highest level. But you can see the evolution in pitcher management over those 20 years. Grant was touching 200 innings as an 18 year old. Bonser’s innings were managed to much greater degree in a way that we recognize as being similar to, say, Seth Corry’s workload. Of course, the industry still had a wide degree of disparity at this point. Bonser was nowhere near the innings leaders for the Sally that year. Another 19-year-old, Adam Wainwright, threw an additional 30 innings, which allowed him to edge out Bonser for the league strikeout title. Taylor Buchholz was up at 176 and a 20-year-old named Mike Nannini did tip the 190 innings mark for Lexington. Bonser never threw a shutout, nor a complete game, that year — in fact, he has just one complete game in his professional career and it came in a 7-inning game in AA. It was an industry in transition. Even so, successfully developing a teenaged-pitcher was just as fraught with difficulty as ever.
2004 — Matt Cain, San Jose Giants/Norwich Navigators (Cal/Eastern, A+/AA), 19 yr
13-5, 2.67 ERA, 28 GS, 161 K, 57 BB, 158.2 IP
It’s hard to remember now, but when Matt Cain showed up in San Jose at the start of 2004, he was shrouded in some mystery. Cain had missed the entire second half the 2003 season. I actually saw his final start that year, days before the Sally League All Star Break. He struck out 12 over 5 dominant, shutout innings. I couldn’t wait to see more from him after the break, but there would be no more. The Giants, as is frequently the case with minor league IL stints, didn’t give out much information on his status. You’d variously hear “arm soreness,” or “minor discomfort.” The Prospect Handbook that winter reported that he’d suffered from a stress fracture in his elbow, which certainly didn’t sound minor. So it was questionable what shape Cain’s arm would be in when the next year started. As it turned out, it was in fine shape! Cain blitzed the Cal League, allowing just 15 earned runs in 13 starts, and striking out 89 in 72 innings. For a teenage-fireballer, his command was strong, as well, as he walked just 17. Along with an 18-year-old Felix Hernandez, he was clearly the class of the league. He gave no sign of the previous year’s injury, going 19 straight starts at one point without allowing more than 2 earned runs. That stretch included the first seven starts of his AA career, after he’d earned a mid-season promotion. Though he fatigued some down the stretch, in the end the 19 year old had taken a huge step forward — he’d never missed a start all year, and averaged nearly 6 innings per outing. He’d pitched more than half the season in AA and posted an excellent 3.35 ERA there. By year’s end, it was clear that the countdown was on to getting him up to the majors, and before another year had passed, he’d established himself in the Giants rotation.
2008 — Madison Bumgarner, Augusta Greenjackets (Sally, A), 18 yrs old
15-3, 1.46 ERA, 1 CG, 1 ShO, 164 K, 21 BB, 141.2 IP
Madison Bumgarner had signed late after the draft. The signing deadline at the time was August 15, and many top draft picks naturally waited most of that time before agreeing to a deal. Consequently, he never made an appearance in the 2007 summer he was drafted. And, as Sports Illustrated told the story (when he was their Athlete of the Year in 2014), he was so homesick when he came to Arizona for Instructional League that Fall that he told Giants officials he didn’t want to play pro ball. He wanted to go home. When his career got officially started in April of 2008, he gave up 5 runs in 3 innings in his debut — and 10 earned runs in 11 innings over his first three starts. At that point, he ditched the new mechanics the Giants had been trying to teach him, returned to his high school motion, and simply plowed over the Sally League opposition. He ripped off four straight starts without allowing an earned run, striking out 30, and walking 5 over the stretch. He’d surrender just six earned runs over the next 12 games and just 13 earned runs over the final 21 starts of his season. He not only led the league in virtually every pitching category, he set team records for ERA and strikeouts that would stand unchallenged for a decade. He surrendered just 3 HRs. He struck out 8 times as many batters as he walked. He simply dominated, game in and game out. It was the greatest sustained stretch of dominance that any Giants’ prospect has had this century.
The talented Augusta squad ended the year with the Sally’s best record. Taking the hill for the first game of the post-season, Bumgarner offered up his best outing yet: 8 innings of shutout ball, 3 hits, 0 walks, 10 punchouts. Not for the last time, he loomed large in the post-season. He’d end his tremendous season with a ho-hum effort, allowing 1 unearned run over 6 innings. It was good enough to help the team take an insurmountable 2-0 lead in the championship series, leading to Augusta’s only league championship team as a Giants affiliate.
2019 — Seth Corry, Augusta Greenjackets (Sally, A), 20 yr old
9-3, 1.76 ERA, 172 K, 58 BB, 53 H, 122.2 IP
And here we’ve come to the end — from the very first year of San Francisco Giants minor league history to the last, or most recent. And it says something indicative of the changes the games gone through that Corry’s breakout year included almost exactly half the innings that Juan Marichal had thrown 61 years earlier in Michigan City. Corry threw more than 6 innings just once, and fewer than 5 innings fourteen times. Like Bob Bolin, the greatness of Corry’s year gathered momentum as the season went along. His first half was perfectly fine, solid. A 2.74 ERA. That’s nice. But after the All Star break, Corry found an entirely different gear. Over his final 14 games, he allowed just 9 earned runs — good for a 1.10 ERA and an 8-1 record. Better yet, the control challenged pitcher went from walking 37 batters in 49 innings to walking just 21 batters in 73.
Corry might not have been quite the equal of Bumgarner during his breakout season, but he broke Bum’s team record for strikeouts while pitching fully 20 fewer innings. Corry’s dominance in the second half was so complete that it could be measured in hits as well as runs. Through one stretch of three starts, he allowed just three hits over 16.2 innings, including more than 10 innings straight without allowing a hit at all. He was hard to hit, hard to put the ball in play off of. He stopped walking people — stopped allowing baserunners at all. He just shoved.
And then….. we all waited to see what the next act would be. Maybe now, just maybe….that wait is almost over and Corry can take the hill again soon.
Thanks for indulging me in scratching my historical itch everybody. Come Monday, we’ll have our eyes firmly on the season to come!
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