Thursday, April 23, 2009

Top 10 Oriole Pitching Debuts

...in honor of Brad Bergesen:


Date Team IP H R SO BB
Tom Phoebus 09/26/66 CAL 9 4 0 8 2
Dave McNally 09/26/62 KCA 9 2 0 4 3
Jesse Jefferson 06/23/73 BOS 10 7 1 1 3
Charlie Beamon 09/26/56 NYY 9 4 0 9 7
Dave Ford 09/02/78 CHW 8.1 7 0 2 1
Bob Milacki 09/18/88 DET 8 1 0 4 4
Anthony Telford 08/19/90 OAK 7 1 0 0 4
Chris Waters 08/05/08 LAA 8 1 0 3 3
Mike Mussina 08/04/91 CHW 7.2 4 1 1 4
Daniel Cabrera 05/13/04 CHW 6 2 0 3 3




Let's do a quick rundown...

Baltimore native Tom Phoebus went on to be a mid-rotation guy for a couple of pennant winners and won a game in relief in the 1970 World Series. He was traded to San Diego before the 1971 season and was never the same.

Dave McNally famously went on to a stellar career that ended too soon.

Jesse Jefferson pitched a 10 inning complete game in his major league debut! That woulkd be his career highlight as he was never even an average pitcher but he did bounce around the majors until 1981.

Charlie Beamon only pitched in 27 games over three seasons for the O's.

Dave Ford was a 1st round pick who only pitched in 51 games over 4 seasons, mostly on relief.

Milacki! Bob was an integral part of the "Why Not?" O's of 1989 but never built upon a promising rookie season. He managed to hang around the league until 1996.

Anthony Telford, like Jose Mesa and Arthur Rhodes, failed as a starter but the Orioles brass of the early 1990's failed to see the possibility of an effective relief arm. Like Mesa (Cleveland) and Rhodes(Seattle), another team would develop him into a decent reliever (Montreal) and he cobbled together a fair career in the bullpen.

You know the story (so far) of Chris Waters.

Mike Mussina went on to a Hall of Fame career.

Daniel Cabrera has a maddening up and down (mostly down) career.


As if it needed stating, a good debut is no predictor of future success. We have everything from AAAA guys to Hall of Famers on this list.

No conclusion really...but it does finally give me an excuse for an Anthony Telford tag on this blog.