Tuesday, May 20, 2008

#171 Jim Roland


Coming 'atcha with another card from reader Ed. There's not a lot of information on Wikipedia or Baseball Reference, so Jim Roland's stats will tell the story. Though the card back below mentions his impressive first start with the Twins, a three-hit, nine-walk effort, he made a career out of solid bullpen work. Only 29 of Jim's 216 appearances came as a starter. Pitching most of his career with Minnesota and Oakland, he crafted a 3.22 ERA that was above league average. It's amazing that he gave up such a relatively low amount of runs, because those nine walks in his starting debut were indicative of his tendencies. He struck out 272 and walked 229 in 450 and one-third innings, a K/BB ratio of just 1.18. His saving grace was a decent hit rate; until his final season, he never gave up more hits than innings pitched.

FUN FACT: Jim Roland had exactly one run batted in over 84 at bats during his career. It was a walk-off walk: bases loaded, two outs, bottom of the fourteenth inning against the Tigers. Detroit had intentionally walked Johnny Roseboro to get to Roland, a career .071 hitter. Way to make it count, Jim!

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for posting card backs now, especially with this set. It adds so much more flavor to the blog and we learn stuff about players.

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