I know Gary Nolan wasn’t the number one. Don Gullett was the opening day starter. But Brian and I decided to put the pitchers up head to head based on how they performed during the season. I had a hard time choosing between Nolan and Billingham, but Nolan put up slightly better numbers. Nolan will be going up against Jack Morris.

Nolan’s career mirrored a guy I saw a lot of here in Detroit in the late 1980s, Frank Tanana. Basically a fast ball pitcher, Gary Nolan lost most of 1973 and all of 1974 to injury. When he came back, he relied more on a changeup and curveball then he did heat (Thank you Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers).

And his comeback season was quite a success. His strikeouts went way, way down, but he hardly walked anyone. Let’s take a look at the numbers:

Innings Pitched 210 2/3
Wins 15
Losses 9
WHIP 1.097
ERA 3.16
Hits/9 8.63
BB/9 1.24
SO/9 3.16
HR/9 0.77
Pitching Runs Above Replacement 55
Stuff 4

This one is really a lot closer then I thought. Nolan has a better ERA and WHIP, but he was less durable and struck out fewer batters. Morris’ stuff rating of 14 is a good ten points better then Nolan’s, but Nolan had a better ERA+ (114 vs. 109).

I guess what it comes down to is, who would I want on the mound? Unfortunately for the home team, that’d be Jack Morris. Sigh.

Scorecard – 1975 Reds 5, 1984 Tigers 4

We’re almost back to being even. You can read Brian’s analysis of Jack Morris over at Tigerblog once he quits whining about Lou Whitaker not being in the Hall of Fame.

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