Indians by the Numbers — #17

via media.cleveland.com

Stalag 17

Following the Not So Sweet Sixteen, the number 17 is only slightly better. One would think that Feller’s number* (William, not Bob) would generate some sort of excitement. But over the years, the best to don #17 is our current LGT favorite, Shin-Soo Choo (추신수).

Choo, born in Pusan, South Korea, would make his mark in Korean baseball as part of the 2000 World Junior Championship (South Korea defeated the US team in the Gold Medal game). Not only was he named MVP, but he also was named Best Pitcher as well. After his successful showing, he parlayed that into a contract with the Seattle Mariners as an undrafted free agent, where he dropped pitching in favor of the outfield. In 2001 as an 18 year old, he would put up a 311/427/509 line (mostly in the Arizona League). In 2002, he would continue his development (mostly with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers) with a 303/421/451 line.

He would gradually move up one level per year until repeating AAA for the Tacoma Rainiers in 2006 as a 22 year old. His line of 323/394/499 in 427 PA would make him a prime target for Shapiro that summer, arriving for Ben Broussard (with Shawn Nottingham added as a PTBNL). He showed signs of his future  in late 2006, hitting 295/373/473 in 167 PA, including a solo home run in a 1-0 victory against the Mariners right after the trade.

2007, would be an injury plagued year, including Tommy John surgery late in the season. Since recovering from that injury, Choo would be very consistent over the next 3 years, accumulating a 302/397/500 143 OPS+ line in 1701 PA in just less than 3 seasons. 2011 has not been as kind to Choo, but he is still the best to wear #17 as a member of the Tribe.

* 17 is known as the Feller number, after the famous mathematician William Feller who taught at Princeton University for many years. Feller would say, when discussing an unsolved mathematical problem, that if it could be proved for the case n = 17 then it could be proved for all positive integers n. He would also say in lectures, "Let's try this for an arbitrary value of n, say n = 17."

A Brief History

Jim Bagby Jr had a respectable career with the Tribe. Son of a former Tribe player, he would be 43-38 in 107 GS with a 3.30 ERA (105 ERA+) in 744.1 IP. He would make the All Star game in 1942 and 1943 and finish 23rd and 20th respectively in the MVP voting those years. His best season was 1943, 17-9 in 35 GS with 16 CG, a 2.96 ERA (116 ERA+) in 270.2 IP.

Al Aber would make only one appearance in #17, but he made it an excellent one, a CG over the Senators with 5 H and 4 BB and 4 K to finish with 2.00 ERA (244 ERA+).

Following his 19th place finish in the MVP voting with the Athletics in 1953, the Tribe would trade Bill Upton and Lee Wheat for Dave Philley. He had a fairly poor year in 1954: 226/308/347 78 OPS+ in 522 PA. He started off 1955 much better (298/368/433 in 117 PA, but somehow was lost on waivers to the Orioles in early July. He would finish the season with 299/367/422 117 OPS+ and finished 20th in the MVP voting again.

After his All Star season with the White Sox in 1955, the Tribe traded Larry Doby (the first time) for Chico Carrasquel and Jim Busby. Chico would only have one good year with the Tribe, 1957: 276/351/378 100 OPS+ in 454 PA. In mid-1958, Cleveland would trade him to the Athletics for Billy Hunter. He would complete his Indian career with a 257/333/345 83 OPS+ in 1171 PA line.

Johnny Klippstein would only be around for 1960, but he had a pretty good season as a reliever. After being purchased from the Dodgers, he would lead the league in saves, 14, while having 2.91 ERA (130 ERA+) in 74.1 IP. The Tribe would lose him in the 1960 expansion draft to the Washington Senators (future Rangers).

The second Chico to play for the Indians, also wore #17, Chico Salmon. He would play many positions, and put up a nondescript 252/292/350 86 OPS+ in 1408 PA over four seasons. The Indians lost him to the Seattle Pilots (future Brewers) in the 1968 expansion draft.

Dave LaRoche was acquired from the Cubs with Brock Davis for Milt Wilcox, before the 1975 season. He would accumulate 42 saves in 95 appearances with an excellent 2.51 ERA (145 ERA+) in 197.1 IP. He was somewhat wild however. He only allowed 133 H, but had 113 BB and 216 K. He made the All Star game in 1976. The Tribe would trade him  in May 1977 to the Angels with Dave Schuler for Bruce Bochte, Sid Monge and $250k.

After the free agency bonanza started in the mid-1970s, the Indians decided to jump into the market and signed Wayne Garland to a $1M 10 year deal. A ridiculous number of years, but hey, the Tribe was trying to make a splash and Garland had won 20 games the year before and finished 8th in the Cy Young voting. He became the Tribe workhorse in his first year, 1977, starting 38 games and leading the league with 19 losses along with 13 wins. He had a decent 3.60 ERA (110 ERA+) in 282.2 IP but only 88 K. He got hurt early in 1978 and never fully recovered, proving the adage of never giving a long term deal to a pitcher. For that cool million, the Tribe received this back on that investment: 5 seasons with 22-48, 88 GS, 4.50 ERA (89 ERA+).

Signed to be Sandy Alomar's backup in 1994, Tomy Pena became the starting C for the 1995 juggernaut as Alomar gut hurt (again). He had a decent 262/302/376 99 OPS+ line in 279 PA in 1995 and hit the infamous 13th inning HR off Zane Smith to win Game 1 of the ALDS against the Red Sox. In his three seasons, he would put up a 248/295/344 65 OPS+ in 600 PA

Fearing that he could not sign Kenny Lofton to a long term deal, John Hart traded the Indian star CF to the Atlanta Braves just before the start of the 1997 season with Alan Embree for David Justice and Marquis Grissom. Grissom was a four time Gold Glove winner and had received MVP votes in 4 of the previous 5 seasons. Grissom was not spectacular for the Tribe in 1997, 262/317/396 83 OPS+ in 622 PA, but he did have a dWAR of 1.1 that year. He had a fantastic series against the Marlins however, 360/448/400 in 29 AB. Hart would resign Lofton as a free agent after that eason and Grissom was dealt to the Brewers with Jeff Juden for Mike Fetters, Ben McDonald and Ron Villone.

Also after 1997, Hart decided to grant Matt Williams his wish and dealt him to the Diamondbacks. In return the Diamondbacks sent Travis Fryman and Tom Martin. Fryman himself had just been traded to the Diamondbacks two weeks earlier. In his five seasons with the Tribe, Fryman would put up a very solid 275/339/440 100 OPS+ in 2425 PA line. Of those five seasons though, only two were good, 1998: 287/340/504 114 OPS+ in 608 PA and 18th in MVP voting, and 2000: 321/392/516 127 OPS+ in 658 PA with an All Star appearance, a Gold Glove and 17th in MVP voting. He fought off injuries in 1999, 2001 and 2002 before retiring.

The One Year Wonders

Ken Holloway, Pete Appleton, Jack Russell, Al Milnar, Paul Kardow, Greek George, Felix Mackiewicz, Gene Bearden, Al Rosen, Butch Wensloff, Milt Nielsen, Al Aber, Jim Lemon, Rudy Regalado, Elmer Valo, Johnny Klippstein, Mike de la Hoz, Zoilo Versalles, Kurt Bevacqua, Jack Heidemann, Luis Alvarado, Ken Berry, Larry Milbourne, Jim Essian, Bill Laskey, Tom Lampkin, Keith Hernandez, Bob Ojeda and Marquis Grissom all wore uniform #17 for only one season.  

The All-Time List

Ken Holloway RP, SP (1929) 6-5 25 G, 11 GS 3.03 ERA 119 IP 148 ERA+; arrived for Uhle

Milt Shoffner RP, SP (1930-1931) 5-7 36 G 14 GS 7.73 ERA 125.2 IP 61 ERA+

Pete Appleton RP (1932) 4/22-5/30  0-0 4 G 0 GS16.20 ERA 5.0 IP 31 ERA+

Jack Russell SP, RP (1932) 6/13-EOS  5-7 18 G 11 GS 4.70 ERA 113 IP 102 ERA+

Belve Bean RP (1933-1935) 6-3 49 G 3 GS 122.2 IP 4.66 ERA 98 ERA+

Al Milnar SP (1936) 4/30, 9/12-9/25; 1-2 4 G 3 GS 22 IP 7.36 ERA 71 ERA+; also #24, was #17 for 1 game 0.2 IP 2 ER

Paul Kardow RP (1936) 7/1-7/4;  0-0 2 G 0 GS 2.0 IP 4.50 ERA 131 ERA+

Greek George C (1936) 8/18-9/27; 195/279/234 26 OPS+ 86 PA

Joe Heving RP (1937-1938)  9-5 43 G 0 GS 78.2 IP 5.14 ERA ~ 85 ERA+

Joe Dobson RP (1939-1940) 5-10 75 G 10 GS 178 IP 5.36 ERA 81 ERA+

Jim Bagby Jr. SP (1941-1944) 44: 7/21-9/20; 43-38 107 GS, 95 GS 744.1 IP 3.30 ERA 105 ERA+; also #22 in 44

Myril Hoag CF (1944-1945) 44: 6/29- EOS;  262/325/333 93 OPS+ 451 PA; 2 GP in 45

Felix Mackiewicz CF (1946) 260/305/349 88 OPS+ 280 PA

Gene Bearden RP (1947) 5/10 0.1 IP

Al Rosen PH, 3B (1947) 9/10-9/27; 111/111/111 -38 OPS+ 9 PA

Butch Wensloff RP (1948) 1.2 IP

Milt Nielsen CF (1949) 111/273/111 4 OPS+ 11 PA 3 G

Al Aber SP (1950) 1 GS, CG 2.00 ERA 224 ERA+ beat Senators

George Zuverink RP (1951-1952) 17 G 0 GS 26.2 IP 5.06 ERA 77 ERA+

Jim Lemon LF (1953) 174/224/261 32 OPS+ 49 PA

Dave Philley RF (1954-1955) 239/319/363 85 OPS+ 639 PA 20th in MVP in 55: mostly with Orioles

Rudy Regalado 3B (1956) 4/17-6/1;  234/308/255 49 OPS+ 52 PA

Chico Carrasquel SS (1956-1958) 4/17-EOS; arrived for Doby left for Biilly Hunter 257/333/345 83 OPS+ 1171 PA

Elmer Valo PH (1959) 292/424/292 104 OPS+ 33 PA

Johnny Klippstein RP (1960) 5-5 49 G 0 GS 74.1 IP 2.91 IP 130 ERA+

Sam McDowell SP, RP (1961-1962) 3-7 26 G 14 GS 94 IP 5.65 ERA 69 ERA+

Mike de la Hoz 2B, 3B (1963) 267/313/433 107 OPS+ 161 PA traded for Chico Salmon

Chico Salmon 2B, 1B, SS, RF, PH, LF, PR 3B (1964-1968) 252/292/350 86 OPS+ 1408 PA also 26 in 1964

Zoilo Versalles 2B, 3B (1969) 4/8-7/16; 226/298/300 66 OPS+ 242 PA was MVP in 65 for Twins .. really!

Lou Camilli PH, SS, 2B, 3B (1969-1972) 1971:4/6-5/31, 6/20, 9/3-9/29; 146/213/172 9 OPS+ in 166 PA only #17

Kurt Bevacqua 2B (1971) 6/20- 9/29; 204/222/307 44 OPS+ 145 PA also #25 in 71

Jack Heidemann 3B, SS (1974) 4/11-5/27; 091/091/091 -47 OPS+ 11 PA

Luis Alvarado 2B, SS (1974) 219/256/237 44 OPS+ 125 PA for Heidemann

Ken Berry LF, PH (1975) 4/12-5/31; 200/238/225 33 OPS+ 42 PA also #1

Dave LaRoche RP (1975-1977) 75: entire season; 77: 4/7-5/10;  8-9 42 SV 2.51 ERA 197.1 IP 145 ERA+ 216 K Also #43 in 75 All Star in 76 arrived for Milt Wilcox, left for Bochte and Sid Monge

Wayne Garland SP (1977-1981) also 23 in 77: entire season; 22-48 99 G 88 GS 613.1 IP 4.50 ERA 89 ERA+

Larry Milbourne 2B, SS (1982) 275/301/361 81 OPS+ 319 PA

Jim Essian C (1983) 204/315/312 71 OPS+ 112 PA

Junior Noboa 2B (1984, 1987) 242/266/286 47 OPS+ 100 PA

Bill Laskey RP (1988) 4/24-6/11, 7/18-8/13; 1-0 17 G 0 GS 24.1 IP 5.18 ERA 80 ERA+

Tom Lampkin C (1988) 9/10-9/30 ; -39 OPS+ 5 PA traded for Alex Cole

Keith Hernandez 1B (1990) 200/283/238 48 OPS+ 145 PA

Bob Ojeda SP (1993) 2-1 43 IP 9 G 7 GS 4.40 ERA 100 ERA+

Tony Pena C (1994-1996) 248/295/344 65 OPS+ 600 PA

Marquis Grissom CF (1997) 262/317/396 83 OPS+ 622 PA arrived for Lofton; to Brewers for Ben McDonald etc

Travis Fryman 3B (1998-2002) 275/339/440 100 OPS+ 2425 PA; 1998: 18th MVP; 2000: All Star 17th MVP, GG

Aaron Boone 3B (2005-2006) 246/306/375 80 OPS+ 957 PA 2006: entire season

Shin Soo Choo RF (2007-2011)  295/388/479 136 OPS+ 2078 PA 14th MVP in 2010

Statistics and such

Other fun facts, the uniform #17 has been worn 87 times by 48 different players covering 75 seasons of a possible 83 seasons since 1929. Uniform #17 was shared in a season nine times, 1932, 1936, 1944, 1969, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1977, and 1988. It was shared by three players in 1936.