Furbush Mows Down Sox

Right. So the Red Sox dropped 2 out of 3 to the Mariners. Wily Mo Pena continues to rake. But I'm going to ignore that for now, as the results of this series is not particularly interesting or even worrisome to me (Charlie Furbush jokes notwithstanding). Instead, as promised, I'm going to hit you over the head with Tim Wakefield related stats and facts each start until he picks up his 200th win. Today's entry? MLB's oldest pitchers.

At 45 years old, Wake is currently tied for 13th on the list of oldest pitchers to throw in a major league game (in terms of years, not breaking it down by birthday, sorry). Technically, the oldest was Satchel Paige, at a whopping 59 years of age. But in reality his career ended when he was 47 with the St. Louis Browns, in 1953. The ever promotional-minded Kansas City A's owner Charlie Finley signed Paige to play for one day in '65, a game which, incidentally, was played against the Red Sox.

Paige's one-off aside, a robo-armed man by the name of Jack Quinn threw his final pitch at the age of 50 in 1933. Quinn pitched with both the Yankees and Red Sox before retiring with the Reds. He also pitched with the White Sox the year before they threw the series to Cincinnati (in 1918, ahem...)

A quick look through the stats shows that power pitchers aren't particularly valuable at their age 45 seasons and beyond. Nolan Ryan at that age? He went 5-9 with a 3.72 ERA in '92 with the Rangers. Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson were slightly worse. Paige himself went 12-10 for the Browns, posting a 3.07 ERA (not that he was really ever a power guy). That season was good for a 3.1 rWAR and an all-star appearance in his age 45 season.

Phil Neikro had a couple of 16 win years for the Yankees in the '80s (4.3 rWAR in '84), which is probably the best of the bunch. Charlie Hough and Tommy John weren't bad either, but I guess the knuckleball and or revolutionary surgery will do that for a guy. In any case, Wakefield stacks up well with his age group.