Firstman: You only start on Sundays
From SABR member Diane Firstman at Value Over Replacement Grit on May 15, 2018:
MLB Advanced Media stats guru Cory Schwartz tweeted out this gem:
Shohei Ohtani has made 4-of-6 starts (67%) on Sundays this year; since MLB.COM started in 2001, only six SP’s have started 10+ games in a season w/ 50%+ of them on the same day of the week; last was Yusmeiro Petit, who made 6-of-10 (60%) starts on Sundays in 2007
That got the VORG wondering how many other pitchers could make that claim. Here is the list of those pitchers with at least 10 totals starts in a season, with at least 50 percent of them occurring on a particular day, between 1901 and 2017. All told there are 73 such instances by 68 different pitchers. Ted Lyons appears five times on the list, as he was pegged as a “Sunday starter” in order to increase attendance for an otherwise-woeful White Sox club. Lyons holds the current record for highest percentage of starts on a particular day of the week, with 90.9% of his starts in 1940 happening on Sunday. He also holds the record for most starts on a particular day, with those 20 in 1940.
Read the full article here: http://valueoverreplacementgrit.com/2018/05/15/you-only-start-on-sundays/
Originally published: May 15, 2018. Last Updated: May 15, 2018.