5 Things You Don't Know About Baltimore Orioles' Pitching Records

At one time the Baltimore Orioles prided themselves on their pitching, although you could hardly tell this from the current version of the club. The team that was the St. Louis Browns before relocating to the East Coast in 1954 has had 6 Cy Young Award winners, but nowadays they have to trade away the likes of power-pitcher Erik Bedard because they know he won't resign with them once he becomes a free agent. With hurlers like Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, Steve Stone, Mike Flanagan, Dennis Martinez, and Mike Mussina, the Baltimore Orioles have a rich pitching tradition. Here are 5 things though that you might not be conscious of about Baltimore Orioles' pitching.

1. Jim Palmer never struck out 200 batters in a single season!

The 8 time 20 game winner is Baltimore's all-time wins leader with 268. However, the closest Palmer ever came to whiffing 200 hitters was in 1970, when he finished the year with 199. On a pair of occasions he reached 193, but a couple of serious arm problems most likely kept him from being even more dominant than he turned out to be. The club mark for strikeouts in a single season belongs to Rube Waddell, who turned the trick way back in 1908, fanning 238 men. The departed Bedard owns the club standard for strikeouts per 9 innings with 8.74 over his career, another reason why Orioles' fans should shudder when considering their present ownership.

2. Mike Cuellar was pretty good!

Cuellar came over to the Orioles in 1969 from the Astros at the age of 32 and proceeded to win 125 games over the next 6 seasons, including totals of 23, 24, 20, 18, 18, and 22. The Cuban-born left-hander had a variety of off-speed and trick pitches to go with his fastball, and he successfully baffled American League batters during his stay in Baltimore. Cuellar would wind up with 143 wins for them in his campaigns in the Charm City, good for 4th place on the team's wins list behind only Palmer, McNally, and Mussina. Not bad for a player who had previously had just one good year before coming to town.

3. No Baltimore Orioles'/ St. Louis Browns' pitcher has ever won 30 games!

The highest number of wins ever recorded by a hurler with this franchise in one year is the 27 put up by Urban Shocker for the Browns in 1927. Then come the 25 triumphs that Steve Stone won in his career year of 1980. Palmer did win 20 those 8 different times, but he never had more than the 23 he won in 1975. This is an amazing fact considering the franchise has been in existence since 1901 and is a testament to how truly bad the Browns were in the days when several teams were producing 30 game winners.

4. The franchise saves leader is Gregg Olsen!

Olsen saved 160 games from 1988 until 1993 before becoming a journeyman free-agent reliever who bounced from team to team after that run. He was very good with the Orioles however, using a fine breaking curveball to freeze hitters. But you would hardly expect a pitching-rich club like Baltimore to have a guy like Olsen as its all-time saves leader. After Olsen on the list are names like Tippy Martinez, Stu Miller, and Jorge Julio; their closer of today, Chris Ray, already ranks 10th on this roster with his 49 saves before the age of 26.

5. Mike Mussina ranks 2nd on the Baltimore career strikeout list!

This is despite the fact that he threw considerably fewer innings than some of the great Orioles' pitchers below him in the record books. Mike had 1,535 Ks in 2,009 frames for Baltimore, while pitchers like McNally had 600 more innings in the uniform and Mike Flanagan had more than 300. Even Cuellar had slightly more innings as an Oriole than Mussina, but finished more than 400 strikeouts behind Mike's totals. Mussina had 3 seasons with Baltimore in which he fanned over 200 batters, but he never won 20 games with them, reaching 19 twice and 18 on 2 other occasions.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BAL/leaders_pitch.shtml