Severino Worst Year Ever for Yank Starter Amazingly Similar to Hughes & Kennedy

Luis Severino off to an 0-6 7.38 start to the year, has been placed on the 15-day Disabled List and the rumor is that when he comes off, he could find himself back in the minor leagues.

If he doesn’t come back this year, he could end up with one of the worst records as a main-line starter, in Yankee history.

We tweeted that and immediately got feedback.

yankeenew

 

Crap we forgot about Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy — their second season when they were both in the starting rotation and did dreadful. Hughes was 0-4 6.87 and Kennedy was 0-4 8.34 — both dreadful, but Severino is 0-6 so has them beat. Plus Severino was the #2 starter coming into the year, while Hughes and Kennedy were slotted at back of the rotation, so the disapointment has been greater.

Phil Hughes & Ian Kennedy First 2 Years Amazingly Similar to Severino

Still — their situation is amazingly similar. Both Hughes and Kennedy were hyped as mainstays in the Yankee starting rotation for years to come — with Joba Chamberlain part of the “Big 3”.

Hughes and Kennedy had trial runs the season before, and did great. Then were horrible in year 2 and lost their spots in the Yankee rotation by May.

This actually provides hope for Yankee fans and Severino — as both Hughes and Kennedy rebounded and have had fine Major League careers as starters. Hughes and Kennedy both have an average year projected over 162 games of 13-11.

Phil Hughes

Year Age Tm W L ERA G IP H BB SO
2007 21 NYY 5 3 4.46 13 72.2 64 29 58
2008 22 NYY 0 4 6.62 8 34.0 43 15 23
2009 23 NYY 8 3 3.03 51 86.0 68 28 96
2010 ★ 24 NYY 18 8 4.19 31 176.1 162 58 146
2011 25 NYY 5 5 5.79 17 74.2 84 27 47
2012 26 NYY 16 13 4.19 32 191.1 196 46 165
2013 27 NYY 4 14 5.19 30 145.2 170 42 121
2014 28 MIN 16 10 3.52 32 209.2 221 16 186
2015 29 MIN 11 9 4.40 27 155.1 184 16 94
2016 30 MIN 1 6 6.44 7 36.1 44 8 26
10 Yrs 84 75 4.39 248 1182.0 1236 285 962
162 Game Avg. 13 11 4.39 38 181 189 44 147
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/15/2016.
Ian Kennedy
Year Age Tm W L ERA G IP H BB SO
2007 22 NYY 1 0 1.89 3 19.0 13 9 15
2008 23 NYY 0 4 8.17 10 39.2 50 26 27
2009 24 NYY 0 0 0.00 1 1.0 0 2 1
2010 25 ARI 9 10 3.80 32 194.0 163 70 168
2011 26 ARI 21 4 2.88 33 222.0 186 55 198
2012 27 ARI 15 12 4.02 33 208.1 216 55 187
2013 28 TOT 7 10 4.91 31 181.1 180 73 163
2013 28 ARI 3 8 5.23 21 124.0 128 48 108
2013 28 SDP 4 2 4.24 10 57.1 52 25 55
2014 29 SDP 13 13 3.63 33 201.0 189 70 207
2015 30 SDP 9 15 4.28 30 168.1 166 52 174
2016 31 KCR 4 3 3.25 7 44.1 33 16 41
10 Yrs 79 71 3.95 213 1279.0 1196 428 1181
162 Game Avg. 13 11 3.95 34 205 192 69 189
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/15/2016.

Luis Severino

Year Age Tm W L W-L% ERA G IP H BB SO
2015 21 NYY 5 3 .625 2.89 11 62.1 53 22 56
2016 22 NYY 0 6 .000 7.46 7 35.0 49 10 27
2 Yrs 5 9 .357 4.53 18 97.1 102 32 83
162 Game Avg. 9 17 .357 4.53 34 184 193 60 157
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/15/2016.

Ed Whitson

We aren’t actually ‘new here’ — we’ve been rooting for the Yankees since 1973 so our first-hand-watching experience covers the early 1990’s when the Yankees sported one of their worst set of teams in their history. Still you have to be really bad to beat an ERA of 7.38 and a winless record for as long as Severino was in the starting rotation.

Ed Whitson goes down as one of the biggest disasters as a Yankee starter, but his win-loss record was ok. He had signed a big free agent contract with the Yankees and was a disappointment in year 1 (10-8 4.88 in 1985) — during which he had a fight with Manager Billy Martin, breaking Martin’s arm while sustaining a cracked rib; he was turned into a reliever by year 2, when  he went 5-2 7.54 — 4-0 7.36 out of the ballpen and 1-2 8.71 in 4 starts. During his tenure with the Yanks, the fans viciously booed him, and some even found out where he lived and threw stones at his house and left burning things on his front lawn. The Yanks traded him away for Tim Stoddard, and he went on to have some excellent years for San Diego.

Ed Whitson

Year Age Tm W L ERA G GS IP H HR BB SO
1977 22 PIT 1 0 3.45 5 2 15.2 11 0 9 10
1978 23 PIT 5 6 3.28 43 0 74.0 66 5 37 64
1979 24 TOT 7 11 4.10 37 24 158.0 151 11 75 93
1979 24 PIT 2 3 4.37 19 7 57.2 53 6 36 31
1979 24 SFG 5 8 3.95 18 17 100.1 98 5 39 62
1980 ★ 25 SFG 11 13 3.10 34 34 211.2 222 7 56 90
1981 26 SFG 6 9 4.02 22 22 123.0 130 10 47 65
1982 27 CLE 4 2 3.26 40 9 107.2 91 6 58 61
1983 28 SDP 5 7 4.30 31 21 144.1 143 23 50 81
1984 29 SDP 14 8 3.24 31 31 189.0 181 16 42 103
1985 30 NYY 10 8 4.88 30 30 158.2 201 19 43 89
1986 31 TOT 6 9 6.23 31 16 112.2 139 13 60 73
1986 31 NYY 5 2 7.54 14 4 37.0 54 5 23 27
1986 31 SDP 1 7 5.59 17 12 75.2 85 8 37 46
1987 32 SDP 10 13 4.73 36 34 205.2 197 36 64 135
1988 33 SDP 13 11 3.77 34 33 205.1 202 17 45 118
1989 34 SDP 16 11 2.66 33 33 227.0 198 22 48 117
1990 35 SDP 14 9 2.60 32 32 228.2 215 13 47 127
1991 36 SDP 4 6 5.03 13 12 78.2 93 13 17 40
15 Yrs 126 123 3.79 452 333 2240.0 2240 211 698 1266
162 Game Avg. 11 11 3.79 39 29 194 194 18 60 110
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/15/2016.

Ed Whitson gained a big fan following elsewhere, and today the Ed Whitson Love Child Rotisserie League is named in his honor and currently sponsors his baseball-reference page, with the current sponsor quote: “For the love of our first ever player drafted, our hero, esteem.

Kei Igawa

Kei Igawa is a name in Yankee Failed-Free-Agent-Starter Lore. Signed to a big contract out of Japan, he BOMBED in NY. His off speed stuff could get people out in Japan, but in the Major Leagues, it was batting practice. He couldn’t even get minor leaguers out, which is where he spent most of the years of his Yankee contract. Still, his one year as a mainstay starter — 2007 — wasn’t as bad as Severino’s 2016.

Kei Igawa

Year Age Tm W L ERA G IP H BB SO
2007 27 NYY 2 3 6.25 14 67.2 76 37 53
2008 28 NYY 0 1 13.50 2 4.0 13 0 0
2 Yrs 2 4 6.66 16 71.2 89 37 53
162 Game Avg. 5 9 6.66 38 168 209 87 124
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 5/15/2016.

Other Horrible Seasons for Yankee Starters

We had to cheat and go back to remember the Yankee starters of 1989 thru 1992 — even though we watched every game back then. There were some bad ones, without the upside or the fastball that Severino has. Still their records were better. Notables in those years include Wade Taylor and Chuck Cary.

Hideki Irabu (“the Fat Toad”) was 5-4 7.09 in his inaugural season after signing the big contract and being heralded as a great Japanese pitcher who would be a Yankee ace. He had a very good 1998, when  he was the best pitcher in baseball the first two months of the season, finishing 13-9 4.06.

In the mid sixties when the Yankees were terrible, they already had Fritz Peterson, Stan Bahnsen, and Al Downing on hand to go with Mel Stottlemyre and Jim Bouton — so they had starters who put up decent numbers. Bouton went 4-15 with a 4.82 in 1965 with a blown arm. Fred Talbot went 1-9 with a 3.36 in 1968.

Find the Worst Season for Any Mainline Yankee Starter Game

You can play a game and go back and see if you can find a worse starter, record wise. Remember the Yankees were Great from 1920 thru 1964 so it will be difficult.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYY/staff.shtml

Bottom Line

Clearly Severino is not the worst Yankee starter — talent wise. His average fastball is 95. But his lack of a good off-speed pitch this year had hitters sitting on the fastball. Hopefully Severino can work on his change of speeds and come back as a top-line starter of the future. Maybe even this year.

 

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