Jack Billingham was one of Sparky’s workhorses. Despite having an ERA+ of only 94, he won 19 games in two different seasons, and 15 in 1975. His best season by far was 1973, when he went 19-10, pitched 293 1/3 innings, and finished fourth in the Cy Young voting. He led the league in innings pitched, games started (40), and shutouts (7).

In 1975, he was good but not great. He did win fifteen, but his ERA+ of 87 was hardly spectacular. He walked almost as many batters as he struck out, and his WHIP was a fairly high 1.447. Nothing to write home about, but he was second on the team in innings pitched (coming in less then three innings behind Gary Nolan), so he gave Sparky quite a few quality innings. Let’s take a look at the rest of his stat line:

Innings Pitched 208
Wins 15
Losses 10
ERA 4.11
ERA+ 87
WHIP 1.447
H/9 9.61
BB/9 3.29
SO/9 3.42
HR/9 0.95
Pitching Runs Above Replacement 30
Stuff -5

The Stuff rating of -5 and the high WHIP are the biggest concern. Regardless, Milt Wilcox has him beat in every category except innings pitched. so chalk this one up for the Tigers.

Scorecard 1975 Reds 6, 1984 Tigers 5

You can read Brian’s analysis of Milt Wilcox over at Tigerblog.

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