My First Cards

When most people think of Jack Morris, they immediately think of game 7 of the ’91 World Series and sometimes his no-hitter in April ’84. Lots of talk about whether he’s a Hall of Famer or not ensues.

When Jack entered the Tigers training camp in ’82 though, he tied for the AL lead in wins the previous year & looked to build on his success. Manager Sparky Anderson must’ve felt good about his chances at a playoff spot. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out that way.

Jack’s overall stats were average in 1982, and he wasn’t even the best pitcher in the Tigers rotation. He had the lowest ERA+ at 100, gave up more hits per 9 IP, and nearly the highest HR’s allowed rate at 1.3. He did lead the team in wins with 17, but he also led it in losses too. In fact, his 16 losses mean he lost more games than any of the other pitchers won.

If we look at the strength of his opponents though, we can see exactly what his problem was—

Essentially, Jack Morris was a Cy Young candidate against bad teams, but he couldn’t even compete against good teams. I mean, the good teams didn’t just beat Morris in ’82, they slaughtered him.

Further, when Morris allowed 2 runs or less, he was 12-1, with 1 no decision. Of those 14 starts though, he only faced 1 team over .500, which makes for a pretty weak 12-1. His record in the other 23 starts, was 5-15 with 3 no decisions. So fortunately for Jack & Detroit, Morris got to face weak teams almost twice as often as strong teams. That covers over the fact that his year was even worse than the 17-16 record, 4.06 ERA, and 100 ERA+ suggest.

For his career, Jack Morris won 62% of his victories by beating inferior lineups. This amazes me.

That’s 92 games over .500 in his career against bad teams, 24 games UNDER .500 when he faced good teams, and his ERA was very different in the two situations. That kind of ruins the whole myth about him being a big game pitcher.

I also can’t help but notice that his 3.57 ERA against sub-.500 teams, is higher than Dave Stieb’s and Bob Welch’s entire career ERA’s (facing good and bad lineups).

That being said, Morris was still a premier pitcher in his day. At his peak, from ’83-’87, he had a 120 ERA+, 3.38 ERA, .635 winning percentage, and 70 CG.