The Wilbur Wood Start

Watching the Dodgers-Giants game tonight and it appears as though Tim Lincecum is in line for the loss despite going 7 innings and giving up no earned runs. Of course, he qualifies for the loss because Matt Kemp scored on a throwing error during the sixth inning. Now I don't want to get into the ridiculousness of wins and losses, and what they really represent in regards to pitching performance, but I wanted to see how often pitchers take losses under similar circumstances.

Enter the Baseball-Reference.com play index. Since 1970, there have been 389 games where a pitcher has tossed 7 innings while giving up zero earned runs and being tagged with the loss. Five pitchers have actually been hung with the loss four different times during this period; here they are with total career starts in parentheses:

Wilbur Wood (297), Fernando Valenzuela (424), Charlie Hough (440), Nolan Ryan (773), and Tim Belcher (373).

Wilbur Wood appears to be the pitcher with the hardest luck out of this group, by virtue of doing it in the least amount of starts, and has thus earned the title for this manner of start. From now on when a pitcher goes 7 innings without giving up an earned run and takes the loss I will be dubbing it a Wilbur Wood start. Or WW start. Or W squared. You get it.

*Side notes: Yes, this does indeed add further to the mysteries behind knuckle-ballers as both Hough and Wood mastered the pitch. Wood was also the last pitcher in baseball history to both win and lose 20 games in a season (24-20 in 1973).

Happy Opening Day!!

It's Christmas morning for baseball fans and all of us here at Cans of Corn would like to wish everyone a very happy Opening Day!

We've had a busy month here at CoC since launching the site 29 days ago and I would personally like to thank Curtis, Cam, and Matt for all their help. Against all odds we managed to get all 30 team previews up and it looks like everyone here is geared for the upcoming season. If you are new to site please check out the follow predictions and previews for a primer on what each of us are expecting for the next six months.

Enjoy!!

Curtis Cleveland's 2011 Predictions

Musty's 2011 Predictions

Cornhole Jones' 2011 Predictions

Rod Ruff's 2011 Predictions

As a bonus, be sure to also check out Curt's more in-depth thoughts, predictions and surprises for the season here.

Finally, you can check out all of our 2011 team previews by using the right sidebar.

2011 Staff Season Predictions - Rod Ruff

AL East: New York Yankees
AL Central: Minnesota Twins
AL West: Oakland Athletics
AL Wildcard: Boston Red Sox

NL East: Atlanta Braves
NL Central: Milwaukee Brewers
NL West: San Francisco Giants
NL Wildcard: Colorado Rockies

AL MVP: Joe Mauer
AL CY Young: Jon Lester
AL ROY: Zach Britton

NL MVP: Troy Tulowitzki
NL Cy Young: Tim Lincecum
NL ROY: Aroldis Chapman

One big surprise of the season: Philadelphia doesn't make the playoffs. After all the hoopla, injuries derail both the offense and the dream rotation as the Phillies fight, and ultimately lose, the wild card race.

2011 Staff Predictions - Curtis Cleveland

AL East: Boston Red Sox

AL Central: Chicago White Sox

AL West: Oakland Athletics

AL Wildcard: Tampa Bay Rays

NL East: Atlanta Braves

NL Central: Milwaukee Brewers

NL West: San Francisco Giants

NL Wildcard: Philadelphia Phillies

AL MVP: Evan Longoria

AL CY Young: Jon Lester

AL ROY: Jeremy Hellickson

NL MVP: Prince Fielder

NL Cy Young: Roy Halladay

NL ROY: Freddie Freeman

One big surprise of the season: Texas doesn't make the post-season. Injuries bite again and the solid progression of Oakland's rotation combined with superb defense gives them the AL West Division.

2011 Staff Predictions - Cornhole Jones

AL East: Boston Red Sox
AL Central: Detroit Tigers
AL West: Texas Rangers
AL Wildcard: Oakland Athletics

NL East: Atlanta Braves
NL Central: Cincinnati Reds
NL West: Colorado Rockies
NL Wildcard: Philadelphia Phillies

AL MVP: Adrian Gonzalez
AL CY Young: Jon Lester
AL ROY: Jeremy Hellickson

NL MVP: Troy Tulowitzski
NL Cy Young: Roy Halladay
NL ROY: Brandon Belt

One big surprise of the season: We'll have a Triple Crown Winner. For the first time since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 someone will capture baseball's elusive prize. Will it be Votto, Pujols, Car-Go, A-Gonz? I don't know. Isn't it bold enough to just predict a Triple Crown?

2011 Staff Season Predictions - Musty

AL East - New York Yankees
AL West - Texas Rangers
AL Central - Detroit Tigers
AL Wild Card - Tampa Bay Devil Rays

NL East - Atlanta Braves
NL West - San Diego Padres
NL Central - St. Louis Cardinals
NL Wild Card - San Fransisco Giants

AL MVP - Adrian Gonzalez (Boston Red Sox)
AL Cy Young - David Price (Tampa Bay Devil Rays)
AL ROY - Desmond Jennings (Tampa Bay Devil Rays)

NL MVP - Albert Pujols (St. Louis Cardinals)
NL Cy Young - Tim Lincecum (San Fransisco Giants)
NL ROY - Freddie Freeman (Atlanta Braves)

One big suprise of the season: San Fransisco repeats as World Series Champions, although this time it will be by the grace of a Wild Card berth. Other surprises: more big name players come clean about using PED's, but that's becoming less of a surprise these days.

CTOD: Arizona Diamondbacks

Similar to their divisional neighbours, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the sun seems to be setting on what was one of the brightest young cores of talent in all of baseball for the Arizona Diamondbacks. 2010 marked the second straight year the D-backs finished in the gutter of the NL West and a lack of depth on both the big league and minors roster seems to destine them to be there for some time.

Last season, pitching was the problem. Arizona allowed 836 runs, good for third worst in baseball, and they featured one of the worst bullpens in recent memory. Not just bad, epically bad. The Diamondbacks bullpen finished the season with an almost unfathomable 5.74 ERA, which was a full run more than the next highest bullpen. Combine that with a rotation that only had two starters (Ian Kennedy, Rodrigo Lopez) pitch more than 142 innings and it was a recipe for disaster.