Pittsburgh Pirates Players Who You Didn’t Know Hold All-Time Records

These three former Pittsburgh Pirates relievers held records you didn't know about.

Aug 2, 2016; Atlanta, GA, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Tony Watson (44) throws a pitch
Aug 2, 2016; Atlanta, GA, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Tony Watson (44) throws a pitch / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
3 of 4
Next

These three former Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitchers hold all-time records that you may not have known about

Baseball fans all know who holds the home run record. It’s Barry Bonds, whether you like him or not. Pete Rose has the most hits in MLB history, Rickey Henderson has the most steals of all-time, Mariano Rivera has the most saves of all-time, and Cy Young has both the most wins and losses for a pitcher in baseball history. 

But the Pittsburgh Pirates and their former players hold multiple records you probably didn’t know about. These aren’t the big, headline attention seeking ones, like the most hits, homers, or saves, but these former Pirates still broke records that still stand today.

Roy Face

Pitcher wins and losses will always rely on so many factors that they’ll never be a good way to accurately analyze how good/bad a pitcher did. However, because so many factors play into a pitcher receiving a W or L on their record sheet, you can get a lot of weird records, such as what Roy Face accomplished in 1959.

Roy Face was what you might consider the Bucs’ first closing pitcher. He was the first Pirates pitcher to record 10+ saves in a season. 1959 was his sixth big league season and his first all-star selection. Face pitched 93.1 innings, all out of the bullpen (57 total appearances). Face owned a strong 2.70 ERA (143 ERA+/70 ERA-), 2.60 FIP (69 FIP-), and 1.24 WHIP. His 18.1% strikeout rate, along with a 6.6% walk rate, and 0.48 HR/9 were all well above the league averages of the time.

However, Face somehow ran into 18 wins while only receiving a single loss. It is the most wins a reliever has ever recorded without starting a game in one season. The next closest is John Hiller, who took home 17 wins for the 1974 Detroit Tigers. Hiller worked 150 innings in just 59 games, recording 3+ innings on 18 different occasions. However, he also took 14 losses.

Even though he blew nine saves, he only took one L during the season. At one point, Face had 17 straight wins with no losses to his name. Four of Face’s blown saves still resulted in a win on his part. Face just happened to pitch at the very right moment in 1959. After that, he eclipsed double-digit wins as a reliever just once over the ten seasons that followed 1959.

This could be the easiest or hardest record to break, depending on your opinion. It could be extremely easy because skill is out of the question. The pitcher doesn’t need to be good, and they could even blow the lead. Four of Face’s wins in 1959 were also blown saves. Only one of his nine blown saves ended in a loss. However, they have to be in the right place at the right time, 19 times. They must be pitching when their team takes the lead, and to do that 19 times requires perfect timing, which really is completely out of the pitcher’s hands. In essence, any pitcher could break this at any time. They just need to be really lucky.

Kent Tekulve

Kent Tekulve is arguably the best relief pitcher in the Pirates’ history. A dozen Teke’s of his 16 big league seasons were in black and gold, consistently being an absolute workhorse out of the bullpen. Tekulve, primarily a closing pitcher during his time in Pittsburgh, set an all-time record: the most innings pitched without making a single start.

Tekulve’s whopping 1436.2 innings pitched as a reliever. The all-time saves leader, and arguably the first person who comes to mind when you think of a relief pitcher, Mariano Rivera, including the 19 starts he made at the very start of his career, pitched 1283.2 innings across 19 seasons.

Tekulve wasn’t just a workhorse either, he was also extremely effective. He pitched to a 2.85 ERA (132 ERA+), 3.26 FIP, and 1.25 WHIP. Tekulve’s 13% strikeout rate was low, even for the era, but he had a respectable 8.2% walk rate and a 0.39 HR/9 rate. Tekulve led the league in games pitched on four separate occasions and pitched 100+ innings seven times.

Including his career innings count, Teke almost has another record to his name, that being the most games pitched in one year. Tekulve pitched in 91 games in 1979, and pitching to a 2.75 ERA (142 ERA+), 3.24 FIP, and 1.18 WHIP. Only Mike Marshall in 1974, who pitched in 106 games, outpaces Tekulve’s highest single-season mark.

It’s unlikely Tekulve’s record is broken. Relievers aren’t used in the same manner they were when Tekulve pitched. Even long relievers never get to 100 innings in a season without making a start. The current active leader in innings pitched without making a start is David Robertson, who is still over 600 innings short of Tekulve’s all-time total. The only way that it would be plausible to break his record was if a bulk man who came in after an opener pitched in that role for most, if not all of their career.

Tony Watson

The set-up man is a key role in the bullpen. Someone has to deliver the 9th inning to the closing pitcher effectively. For the better part of a decade, Tony Watson was a lights out set-up man for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He then took his talents to the West Coast, pitching for multiple California teams. But given that Watson never took over a closing pitcher role for more than part of a season, and was almost always given a 7th/8th inning role, Watson racked up a ton of holds.

Over the course of 11 big league seasons, Watson pitched to a 2.90 ERA, 3.59 FIP, and 1.08 WHIP. For ten years in a row, Watson posted an ERA+ of at least 100, meaning that for a decade, he was better than the league average pitcher in run prevention. He was also extremely durable, pitching 50+ innings in all but two of his seasons (one of those seasons was the shortened 2020).

Watson’s best season was in 2014 when he pitched to a 1.63 ERA, 2.69 FIP, and 1.02 WHIP in 77.1 innings. Along with that, he struck out 26.3% of opponents faced and had just a 4.9% walk rate and 0.58 HR/9. This was his single-season best ERA, FIP, innings total, strikeout rate, and K:BB ratio at 5.4. 

Because of Watson’s longevity, he was able to rack up a total of 246 holds, which outpaces Arthur Rhodes by 15. There’s not any players currently within striking distance of Watson either, so his record is likely safe for at least the foreseeable future. Of Watson’s 648.1 career innings, 334.1 came in the 8th inning. However, this isn’t the only record Watson holds, no pun intended.

Watson racked up 41 holds in 2015, which ties him with Joel Peralta in 2013 for the most in a single season. During that year, Watson pitched to a 1.91 ERA, 2.84 FIP, and 0.96 WHIP in 75.1 innings. Watson only had a 21.2% strikeout rate, but just a 5.8% walk rate, and 0.36 HR/9, the final number of which was a career best. Watson helped Mark Melancon set a record of his own, saving 51 games, en route to the most saves by a Pirates pitcher in franchise history.

Next. revisit cole trade. Revisiting the Gerrit Cole Trade. dark

Next