Just checking out our boy Roger Nelson’s stats on baseball-reference.com, and he may be the owner of the best nerd pitching season ever!*
In 1972, he pitched in 34 games, 19 as a starter. He threw 10 complete games (not as impressive considering 4 guys threw 20+ CGs that year), 6 of those being shut outs. Over 173.3 innings, he had an ERA of 2.08 (ERA+ of 145) and a WHIP of .871.
Somehow, the season before he only threw 34 innings with an ERA+ of 64, and the year after he only threw 54.7 innings with an ERA+ of 99.
*His is the only nerd pitching stats I’ve looked at so far…
Tags: best nerd season, ERA+, roger nelson
(4.88 out of 5)
I just looked him too, and he was only on the O’s in 1968, so that’s when that picture was taken. He was also the first pick of the 1968 expansion draft later that year by the Royals. Do you think they thought he’d be good because he was so nerdy?
I’m not sure that any of his individual seasons can match Nelson’s 1972 campaign, but Brian Downing, who has not yet been featured on the site, had a surprisingly long and good career. He played for 20 seasons and finished with an OPS+ of 122 and almost 2100 hits! Maybe his longevity and consistency can be attributed to his stunning ability to shed his nerdiness mid-career. Based on his numbers, he’s got to be in the discussion for most impressive overall nerd career.