Hitting The Cutoff Man

Here's an understatement: Things have not gone as planned in Seattle this season.

Here's an even bigger understatement: It's not Cliff Lee's fault.

For anyone not following the virtuoso pitching that has been taking place in the Pacific Northwest this season, Lee currently is on a historic pace. The southpaw, who soon could be traded for the third time in a year, has struck out 76 batters and walked only four heading into Tuesday's start at Yankee Stadium. That's good for a 19-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, which as the Baseball-Reference Blog shows, puts him on pace to destroy Bret Saberhagen's single-season record of 11-to-1, set in the strike-shortened 1994 campaign.

That ratio almost certainly will come down some over the course of the season, but Lee has a real shot to break the record.

But while thinking about Lee's amazing season, I wondered about the worst seasons in history in terms of K/BB ratio. After checking the numbers, I'm absolutely shocked at how poor they are.

This season, no pitcher with enough innings to qualify for the ERA title has walked more batters than he has struck out, with Aaron Cook's 1.03/1 mark the lowest (although Washington's John Lannan, just sent to the minors, has 35 BBs and 24 Ks). Last season, the worst K/BB mark was Trevor Cahill's 1.25.

But if you go back through history, you find some stunning numbers.

The ultimate Bizarro Cliff Lee is Ernie Wingard, who pitched four seasons for the St. Louis Browns in the 1920s. In his career (almost 700 innings), Wingard walked more than three times as many batters as he struck out, despite being a nearly league-average pitcher (ERA+ of 96). His worst K/BB actually came in 1925, when he didn't quite qualify for the ERA title, but his rookie year of '24 was almost as bad. Although Wingard posted a 3.51 ERA and a very solid 128 ERA+, he walked 85 compared with 23 strikeouts, for a ratio of 0.27-to-1. Of his 85 walks, 14 were intentional.

That season blows my mind, both for the K/BB ratio itself and for the fact Wingard was able to be so effective in spite of it when we know that ratio has such a strong relationship with a pitcher's success.

Coming in behind Wingard is Merritt Patrick Cain, who went by 'Sugar' but put up some rancid K/BB ratios. His worst in a qualified season came in 1933 for the Philadelphia Athletics, when he managed to issue 137 free passes in 218 innings, while striking out just 43. That's a 0.31-to-1 mark. And yet somehow, like Wingard, Cain didn't have a bad year, posting a 101 ERA+.

There are no players from recent seasons anywhere near the top of the list, but here are your worst K/BB marks since 2000:

1. Nate Cornejo, DET, 2003: 194.2 IP, 58 BB, 46 K, 0.79 K/BB
2. Mike Hampton, COL, 2002: 178.2 IP, 91 BB, 74 K, 0.81 K/BB
3. Kirk Rueter, SF, 2004: 190.1 IP, 66 BB, 56 K, 0.85 K/BB
4. Damian Moss, SF/BAL, 2003: 165.2 IP, 95 BB, 81 K, 0.85 K/BB
5. Jimmy Haynes, MIL, 2000: 199.1 IP, 100 BB, 88 K, 0.88 K/BB

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