Fun with Retrosheet data: Incomplete games by position
From SABR member Tom Ruane at Retrosheet.org on April 8, 2012:
In doing research on the Deadball Era, I became interested in what teams did the most and least in-game substitutions. So I decided to take a look at the teams with the highest and lowest percentage of complete games by position. As in their pitching counterparts, a player can get credit for a complete game at a position if he is pinch-hit or ran for in the last half-inning of a game.
First of all, I figured it might be interesting in looking at the teams with the highest percentage of complete games at all positions. Here is the leaderboard from 1916 to 2011:
Year Team CG IG Pct W L 1918 BRO N 1071 63 .944 57 69 1920 CHI A 1303 83 .940 96 58 1918 PHI A 1097 73 .938 52 76 1918 BOS N 1045 71 .936 53 71 1941 CHI A 1308 96 .932 77 77 1920 PIT N 1299 96 .931 79 75 1949 BOS A 1299 96 .931 96 58 1939 NY A 1272 96 .930 106 45 1918 CIN N 1078 83 .929 68 60 1919 CIN N 1170 90 .929 96 44
Of course, including pitchers in the data above pretty much eliminates any modern team. So here is the same list with pitchers removed:
Year Team CG IG Pct W L 1949 BOS A 1215 25 .980 96 58 1918 BRO N 986 22 .978 57 69 1918 PHI A 1017 23 .978 52 76 1940 WAS A 1205 27 .978 64 90 1934 STL A 1202 30 .976 67 85 1920 STL A 1201 31 .975 76 77 1939 NY A 1185 31 .975 106 45 1941 WAS A 1216 32 .974 70 84 1920 PIT N 1207 33 .973 96 58 1940 NY A 1206 34 .973 88 66 1943 CHI A 1206 34 .973 82 72
Read the full article here: http://www.retrosheet.org/Research/RuaneT/retro_fun2.htm#A120408
Originally published: April 9, 2012. Last Updated: April 9, 2012.