The Evolution of Pitcher Usage - Jim Konstanty

by Lincoln Mitchell

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NOTE - This article comes from Lincoln Mitchell's Substack page, Kibitzing with Lincoln . Please click HERE to follow Lincoln on Substack.

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The 1950 World Series was one only a Yankees fan could enjoy. The Yankees had won the 1949 World Series, and then won 98 regular season and the captured the American League pennant by a full three games in 1950. The Phillies, known as the Whiz Kids, had wrapped up the National League pennant on the last day of a regular season during which they won only 91 games. In those days there were no playoffs or divisions so the winners of each advanced directly to the World Series.

The Yankees swept the Phillies in that World Series, but it was closer than a sweep might suggest. The Yankees won the first three games by one run each and the final game by a score of 5-2. Game One was the most interesting of the series. The Yankees won by a score of 1-0 behind a complete game shutout by Vic Raschi, a mainstay of the Yankees pitching rotation of that era. The only Yankees run came in the fourth inning on a sacrifice fly by light-hitting second baseman Jerry Coleman.

The Phillies pitcher that day was Jim Konstanty. Konstanty had an excellent season in 1950 going 16-7 with an ERA of 2.66, good for an ERA+ of 151 and 4.4 WAR. Konstanty’s great season was regonized by the writers who voted him the National League’s Most Valuable Player.

Konstanty did not really deserve the award, but there was something unusual about his season that probably swayed the voters. Konstanty had not started a single game, and pitched all his 152 innings out of the bullpen, saving 22 games. There was no Cy Young Award in 1950, but before Mike Marshall, Sparky Lyle and other relievers won that award decades later, Konstanty brought home the MVP hardware.

The decision to start Konstanty was not quite as strange as it seems now. Robin Roberts, the Phillies ace had pitched a ten-inning complete game against the Dodgers on October 1st, so was not fully rested for game one on October 4th. Curt Simmons, had a fine season in 1950, but he was called up to the National Guard in September of that year. Although he received a pass to pitch in the World Series, Commissioner Happy Chandler ruled him ineligible. In this context Phillies manager Eddie Sawyer had few choices, so Konstanty made some sense, and indeed pitched very well, giving up only one run in eight innings.

By the mid-century pitcher like Firpo Marberry, Johnny Murphy and Joe Page had demonstrated the value of good relief pitching, as relief specialists were not as uncommon as they had been a decade or two earlier, but there was enough flux in pitcher usage that a relief ace could still be called upon to start an occasional game.

Konstanty was used almost exclusively as a reliever throughout his entire big league career, making him one of the first pitchers to have a relatively long career out of the bullpen. He only started 36 games in a career that lasted 11 seasons in which he pitched in 433 games. Moreover, 31 of those starts came in either his first season or in 1953, the rest of the time Konstanty was a reliever.

Like a lot of relief pitchers, Konstanty had one great year where everything came together, but then struggled with inconsistency. However, after being waived by the Phillies during the 1954 season, Konstanty pitched parts of three seasons for the Yankees. During those years, he was a combined 8-3 with 17 saves and a 2.36 ERA. His best year in pinstripes was 1955 when he had 12 saves in an excellent Yankees bullpen. Konstanty did not appear in the World Series that year which the Yankees famously lost to the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Konstanty’s MVP season occurred as relief pitching was claiming a center role in baseball. During the 1950s, pitchers saved more than ten games in a season 71 times and saved more than twenty in a season six times. Moreover, pitchers appeared in 30 or more games while starting fewer than 5-a good definition of a useful to valuable relief pitcher-278 times. Comparable numbers for the 1940s were 31 ten save seasons, one twenty save season and only 152 pitcher seasons of 30 games with fewer than ten starts.

Pitchers still threw a lot of complete games in the 1950s, but the notion that pitchers were still expected to finish what they started in those days is a triumph of sepia toned memories over reality. Complete games were still valued, and the best pitchers continued to finish what they started, but it was no longer the rule. Konstanty’s 1950 Phillies only pitched 57 complete games. The Yankees won five consecutive World Series from 1949-1953. During that time, due in part of Casey Stengel’s innovative managing style, they averaged only 63 complete games per season.

By the time Jim Konstanty retired relief pitchers had been firmly established as part of the game, but even many intense fans wouldn’t be able to tell you who the first relief pitcher to win an MVP award was.