That, despite incredible career hitting splits against of .209/.286/.350.
Somehow, out of his 300 career starts, and despite 23 career complete games, he ended up with 90 no-decisions (30% of starts) in which he had a 3.80 ERA.
In 94 of his starts, the Mets remarkably scored 2 runs or less, and Sid was 6-69 in those games, despite a fine 3.58 ERA. Bad luck indeed.
Even more so that many of his years were when the Mets were in their most dominant phase ever, going 198 games over .500 from 1984 through 1990, an average of 28 games over .500 (.587). He got far too little offensive support from those big boys. He was 78-58 (.573) in that 7 year stretch, by comparison.
He was never "the man." Even in his best season, 1986, when he went 16-6 for the World Champs, teammates Gooden and Ojeda outdid him with 17-6 and 18-5 records.
He had a great World Series against the Bosox, though - doubt they win it without him - 10 Ks in just over 6 IP.
He had a great World Series against the Bosox, though - doubt they win it without him - 10 Ks in just over 6 IP.
He had a 1.85 ERA in his career wins, with more than a K per inning, and a not-terrible 5.20 ERA in his 96 losses. By comparison, the Great Tom Seaver had a hardly better 4.92 ERA in his losses, and Dwight Gooden in his losses had an ERA over 6.
Sid was just 47-56, 4.05 on the road. My guess is he got more hometown ump's strike calls than on the road, and big Sid no doubt loved home cooking.
Sid came from the Dodgers organization and was a minor league beast, at 44-19, 2.73 and 807 Ks in 614 IP.
And the Mets stole him from LAD, giving up just relief pitcher Carlos Diaz and veteran utility player Bob Bailor.
Sid came from the Dodgers organization and was a minor league beast, at 44-19, 2.73 and 807 Ks in 614 IP.
And the Mets stole him from LAD, giving up just relief pitcher Carlos Diaz and veteran utility player Bob Bailor.
He also was .658 lifetime against sub-.500 teams, and just .406 against teams at or over .500. One would think he was soft against winners, but those records were very non-representative, since his ERA in the former games was 3.31, but against the tougher teams, a barely higher 3.41.
He was a combined 14-4 pitching in Cincy and Pittsburgh, and just 1-11 in Montreal and Chicago.
He gradually weakened as games went along, with a 2.98 ERA in innings 1-3, 3.63 in innings 4-6, and 3.91 in innings 7-9. He was more ideally suited to current baseball's 6 to 7 innings from a starter philosophy, and went deep into games too often, 77 times pitching in the 8th inning and 37 times in the 9th inning, when his ERA was 4.25.
He had a really tough fastball and a wide, sweeping curveball that made me often wonder how a lefty could hit him. Yet, righty hitters were .208/.285/.354 against him while lefties were a similar .213/.292/.327 against El Sid. That is a puzzler to me.
Remarkably, he threw to 25 catchers over his career. For guys who caught a bunch of his innings, his ERA with Todd Hundley was best (2.56).
El Sid was a fine pitcher, but to me almost always seemed to come up short in the luck and runs support columns. And he'd lose stamina late in games, when he picked up quite a few NDs and Ls.
Regardless: I'd take a guy like Sid for this 2020 team - any time.
5 comments:
I always considered Sid the iron horse of that Mets rotation.
El Sid was hurt by his lack of control which made his pitch counts run high by the 6th inning. He was being lifted and thus didn’t go deep into games very often when the go ahead runs score or you avoid your bullpen blowing the lead. Even in today’s game, a good pitcher has to finish the 7th inning. Mediocre pitchers only go six. Thus, Fernandez fell into the “Mediocre Pitcher” category. Seems deception from his delivery was a big plus in not picking up the ball quickly out of his hand.
Lots of K’s however and those three straight strikeouts in Game 7, including whiffing Jim Rice on that high heater, energized the crowd at Shea and got the Mets bats to get energized as well, scoring three runs finally off Bruce Hurst.
Always liked Sid as well. His relief appearance in Game 7 1986 WS was a game changer. His start in 1988 against the Dodgers - 4 innings, 6 runs in a game the Mets lost 7-4 was a game ender. Had he come up big thereand turned that series around, he would be remembered better.
Texas, Sid might have been an ideal pen arm today.
Sid was still solid mostly in the 7th inning (3.68)...and actually made it into the 7th in slightly more than half of his starts. Really not bad. The 8th and 9th got his ERA up in the low to mid 4s. He was gassed.
But righty contemporary Ron Darling by comparison only pitched a slightly higher % of his starts into the 7th inning and his ERA in the 7th in his career was a few ticks higher at 3.84.
Mack, Sid was built like a Clydesdale.
John, that Sid bad start against LAD was unusually bad for him...bad timing.
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