Examining A Last Place Team

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A study of the Philadelphia Phillies of 1930 will offer baseball fans a fascinating paradox, as well as a snapshot of what the game was like in an era gone by. This was a team who won only 52 games while losing 102. That's good for a miniscule winning percentage of .338 - and one that ranks among the worst in baseball history. Taken by itself, that is a pretty innocuous fact. After all, there have been baseball teams losing 100 games in a single season for at least 100 years. But if you subsequently consider that this team compiled the third highest team batting average in baseball history, you begin to understand the oddity. Chuck Klein compiled 250 hits and posted a .386 batting average. Lefty O'Doul added 202 hits and a .383 average. And for good measure, throw in Pinky Whitney along with his 207 hits and .342 mark and you may begin to wonder how a .315 batting average as a team is rewarded by a last-place finish?

The answer is both simple and not so simple. And, in both cases, it's pitching. On the surface, the numbers are very telling: a 6.71 team ERA, a league-high 1,199 runs allowed (the most runs allowed by one pitching staff in MLB history), and an absolutely ridiculous 1,993 hits allowed in 1,373 innings. The "ace" of the staff was Phil Collins, who went 16-11 and posted an ERA of 4.78 (the best on the team among pitchers who threw more than 30 innings). The other starters? Ray Benge (11-15, 5.69), Les Sweetland (7-15, 7.71), Claude Willoughby (4-17, 7.59). (See all starters' 1930 stats at the bottom of the page.) It's not all that much of a stretch to realize that no matter what your offense is able to contribute, overcoming such brutally futile pitching would be an understandably insurmountable task.

But an even closer look reveals some incredible clarity.

In games in which they scored 5 or more runs, the 1930 Phillies won just 42 of 90. That's a winning percentage of .467. In comparison, from 1901 through 2004, MLB teams that have scored 5 or more runs in a game have compiled a winning percentage of .779.
The 1930 Phils lost 18 games in which they scored 8 or more runs, and 6 games in which they scored 15 or more times!
In fact, on back-to-back days (July 23rd and 24th), the Phightin' Phils lost 16-15 to the Pittsburgh Pirates and 19-15 to the Chicago Cubs.
On May 30, they lost both ends of a double-header to the Cubs, surrendering 11 runs in each game.
Over the course of the season, the pitching staff allowed 10 or more runs a mind-boggling 43 times! Or, if you prefer, in 27.5% of their games!