The 2017 season will be the Rockies’ 25th. In that time, they’ve had an MVP, a first baseman whose entire 17-year career was with the Rockies, and a third baseman to draw comparisons to Brooks Robinson. They’ve also had a slew of forgettable players who have done forgettable things. But baseball being baseball, those things are recorded for posterity. Below you’ll find a bunch of players who might now be the answer to really obscure trivia questions, and who also might soon be getting google alerts because their name has finally—finally!—shown up in a baseball article.
This project was inspired by Effectively Wild’s recognition that Ryan Webb and Matt Albers are in the midst of something special for having finished the most games ever without recording a save (105 and 99, respectively). And, naturally, all statistics came from Baseball Reference’s Play Index.
Pitching
Most games finished without a save: Wilton Lopez, 29 (a long way from Webb and Albers fame)
Note: Chad Qualls has 14 games finished without a save and can theoretically catch Lopez if he doesn’t fall off the team.
Most blown saves without a save: Matt Herges and Tim Harikkala, 7
Most starts without a win: Andy Ashby, 9
In pursuit: Jeff Hoffman, 6; though he might catch Ashby, he’s not a good bet to hold on for long.
Most IP without a balk: Pedro Astacio, 827 1⁄3
Note: Second place Brian Bohanan with 471 1⁄3; Tyler Chatwood hasn’t balked in 358 innings so far in his career.
Most pickoffs: Jamey Wright: 30
Note: He’s right-handed.
Most IP without a pickoff: Pedro Astacio, 827.1
Note: Apparently, Astacio was only concerned with pitching, and doing so without paying heed to runners or intentionally deceiving them with misleading moundplay.
Most batters faced without allow a home run: Denny Bautista, 81
Most batters faced without allowing a walk: Mike Saipe, 54
Note: That’s a lot of batters faced without allowing a walk, but he was able to do so because 22 of those batters got a hit (5 home runs); he allowed 12 runs in his 10 innings as a member of the Rockies.
Most batters faced without striking a batter out: Jim Stoops, 17
Most batters faced without a wild pitch: Darren Oliver, 786
Note: Second place is Mike Harkey with 415, so sleep well, Mr. Oliver, your position appears safe.
Most batters faced without a hitting a batter: Rafael Betancourt, 1,117
Note: Second place LaTroy Hawkins has less than half, with 540.
Most games without a decision: Bob Seay, 17
Hitting (pitchers excluded)
Most Plate appearances without...
A home run: Alex Cole, 399
A triple: Charles Johnson, 776
A double: Chris Sexton, 70
A single: Kimera Bartee, 19
A hit: Kimera Bartee, 19
A walk: Tony Womack, 81
A strike out: Jeff Manto, 7
An intentional walk: Willy Taveras, 946
Note: Kimera Bartee, he of the most plate appearances without recording a hit, was intentionally walked exactly one more time (1) in his 19 plate appearances than Taveras was in his 946.
A run: Kimera Bartee, 19
An RBI: Pat Watkins, 22
Note: Yes, Kimera Bartee had an RBI; it came by way of sacrifice fly.
An extra base hit: Thomas Field, 54
A hit by pitch: Kaz Matsui, 579
Note: Keep eyes on David Dahl and Tony Wolters this season. Dahl has 237 plate appearances without a HBP and Wolters has 230. One or both could conceivably catch Matsui in 2017.
Grounding into a double play: Ron Gant, 199
Note: I forgot he played for the Rockies, too!
Without a sacrifice bunt: Larry Walker, 4,795
Note: Nolan Arenado has three.
Without a sacrifice fly: Melvin Mora, 395
Most stolen bases without being caught: Jeff Baker, 7
Note: Dahl has 5, so keep an eye on his steals, too.
Most times caught stealing without successfully stealing a base: Jeff Barry, 4
Most hits without an RBI: Walt McKeel, 4
Oldest player to record first career hit: Allan Cockrell, 33 years 280 days
Youngest player to record a hit: Roberto Mejia, 21 years 93 days
Note: Again, this section excludes pitchers. Including pitchers, the youngest player to record a hit for the Rockies was reliever Marcos Carvajal, who singled for the Rockies with 21 years and 32 days (it was part of a 20-1 win over the Padres on September 20, 2005). It was the final of four plate appearances Carvajal had in his short career. So, the Rockies have never had a player under the age of 21 get a hit in a game in their entire history, and the youngest player to ever record a hit for the team was a reliever who had four career plate appearances.
Baseball.