Greatest September Call-Ups

We’re only three days from the expansion of major league rosters. On Sept. 1, all players on a team’s 40-man roster will be eligible to play in the big leagues without an accompanying move. Often times, baseball fans are treated to a sneak preview of teams’ top minor league talent as a result of September call-ups; or they’re surprised by a relatively unknown player who manages to contribute over the season’s final month.

In preparation for this year’s roster expansion, I thought it would be interesting to look back at the greatest-ever September call-ups, defined here as players that made their major league debut during the month of September.

There are, of course, two ways to look at this: The first is to look at players — position players and pitchers — who generated the most value for their clubs during their call-up. The second is to look at players whose careers began as a September call-up and then went on to have great careers.

I’m looking at both.

David Appelman was kind enough to pull the data for me.  For position players, I looked at WAR, but also at wRC+. Why? Any metric can be volatile in a small sample — and a month is pretty small — but defensive metrics tend to be more volatile than others. I didn’t institute a plate-appearance limit for WAR, but I did for wRC+ (40). For pitchers, I looked at FIP- and ERA-.

Let’s first tackle the greatest September performances among position-players, sorted by WAR and then by wRC+:

Player	Debut	Sept PA	Sept wRC+	Sept WAR
Dwayne Hosey	9/1/95	77	171	1.6
Bill Sudakis	9/3/68	102	168	1.4
Chris Parmelee	9/6/11	88	187	1.3
Fernando Perez	9/5/08	72	121	1.2
Craig Wilson	9/5/98	53	228	1.2
Daric Barton	9/10/07	84	183	1.2
Nyjer Morgan	9/1/07	118	107	1.1
J.D. Drew	9/8/98	41	260	1.1
Kevin Seitzer	9/3/86	116	148	1.0
Jim Greengrass	9/9/52	75	159	1.0

 

Player	Debut	Sept PA	Sept wRC+	Sept WAR
J.D. Drew	9/8/98	41	260	1.1
Craig Wilson	9/5/98	53	228	1.2
Fred Lynn	9/5/74	51	226	0.8
Randy Ready	9/4/83	43	211	0.7
Chris Parmelee	9/6/11	88	187	1.3
Daric Barton	9/10/07	84	183	1.2
Mark Quinn	9/14/99	65	175	0.8
Dwayne Hosey	9/1/95	77	171	1.6
Bob Nieman	9/14/51	47	171	0.6
Ron Cash	9/4/73	46	169	0.8

For overall value, it’s hard to top Dwayne Hosey, who made his debut on Sept. 1, 1995. Hosey created 1.6 Wins Above Replacement for the Boston Red Sox, and he did it in only 77 plate appearances. The 28 year-old outfielder posted a wRC+ of 171 (tied for eighth-best among September call-ups) and posted a .279 ISO and a .408 OBP. After his historic September, Hosey came back to earth and earned a negative WAR (-0.3) in 1996 in 87 plate appearance.

Bill Sudakis was a 22 year-old with the Dodgers in 1968. He rewarded his team with 1.4 WAR. All of Sudakis’ value was tied up in his offense that September, and he posted a 168 wRC+ in 102 plate appearances. Sudakis manned third base for 24 games and had a .195 ISO while he walked more than he struck out (15 walks against 14 strikeouts). Sudakis went on to be the Dodgers’ starting third basemen the next year. He generated 2.6 wAR, but only managed a 95 wRC+. He finished his career with 6.9 WAR and a 101 wRC+.

What about pitchers?

Here’s the top 10 pitchers (minimum of four starts), sorted first by ERA- and then by FIP-:

Player	Debut	Sept GS	Sept G	Sept IP	Sept ERA-	Sept FIP-
Josh Beckett	9/4/01	4	4	24	36	99
Marty Bystrom	9/7/80	5	6	36	41	73
Jack McDowell	9/15/87	4	4	28	43	70
Eric Gagne	9/7/99	5	5	30	49	91
Rich DeLucia	9/8/90	5	5	36	50	79
Steve Busby	9/8/72	5	5	40	51	54
Randy Martz	9/6/80	6	6	30.1	53	100
Dillon Gee	9/7/10	5	5	33	56	109
Pat Combs	9/5/89	6	6	38.2	59	63
Tim Belcher	9/6/87	5	6	34	61	75

 

Player	Debut	Sept GS	Sept G	Sept IP	Sept ERA-	Sept FIP-
Steve Busby	9/8/72	5	5	40	51	54
Richard Dotson	9/4/79	5	5	24.1	88	58
Pat Combs	9/5/89	6	6	38.2	59	63
Andy Rincon	9/15/80	4	4	31	71	66
Wade Davis	9/6/09	6	6	36.1	87	69
Jack McDowell	9/15/87	4	4	28	43	70
Marty Bystrom	9/7/80	5	6	36	41	73
Bob Knepper	9/10/76	4	4	25	91	73
Ken Forsch	9/7/70	4	4	24	140	73
Tim Belcher	9/6/87	5	6	34	61	75

In four starts in 2001, Josh Beckett posted an adjusted ERA of 36. While the young pitcher struck out more than 24% of the batters he faced, he also walked more than 11%. The high walks didn’t hurt him, though, and he managed to strand 78% of his runners. Opposing hitters only mustered a .183 BABIP against Beckett.

Future Dodgers closer Eric Gagne started five games for Los Angeles in September 1999. Gagne struck out 25.2% of the batters he faced and stranded 86.8% of the batters who reached base. That helped fuel his 2.10 ERA for the month. Gagne spent the next two seasons primarily as a starting pitcher before he was moved to the bullpen full-time.

A few other notable September call-ups include White Sox great Jack McDowell (43 ERA-, 70 FIP-), Tim Belcher (61 ERA-, 75 FIP-) and Steve Busby whose 51 ERA- and 54 FIP- are nearly identical.

Arguably the greatest relief performance from a call-up belongs to Joel Johnston. Johnston debuted on Sept. 5, 1991 and finished the year with a 10 ERA- in 22.1 innings pitched. Johnston stranded 94% of all base runners and struck out almost 25% of batters faced. In his 13 appearances, Johnston recorded six shutdowns and didn’t have a meltdown. Unfortunately for Johnston and the Royals, he’d would fall far short of his 1991 brilliance and posted a 364 FIP- of in five appearances the next year. Johnston had pretty good season in 1993 with the Pirates (82 ERA-, 111 FIP-), but he pitched horribly in only eight more games from 1994 to 1995.

There’s obviously a significant amount of variability when you see how the best September call-ups’ careers panned out. Some went on to have good to great careers (like Drew and Belcher); but many times, some truly great players managed only mediocre September debuts. Here are the top-20 position players (sorted by career WAR) and pitchers (sorted by career FIP-, minimum 1000 innings pitches):

Player	Debut	Sept PA	Sept wRC+	Sept WAR	Career PA	Career wRC+	Career WAR
Mike Schmidt	9/12/72	40	84	0.2	10062	146	110.5
Joe Morgan	9/21/63	30	118	0.0	11329	141	108.0
Brooks Robinson	9/17/55	22	-55	-0.5	11782	105	94.6
Chipper Jones	9/11/93	4	353	0.1	10489	143	90.8
Carlton Fisk	9/18/69	5	-100	-0.1	9853	118	74.4
Lou Whitaker	9/9/77	37	64	-0.3	9967	117	74.3
Rafael Palmeiro	9/8/86	78	89	0.0	12046	130	74.3
Ernie Banks	9/17/53	39	141	0.6	10395	117	74.1
Gary Carter	9/16/74	29	186	0.5	9019	114	72.5
Reggie Smith	9/18/66	27	-14	-0.2	8050	136	71.8
Jim Thome	9/4/91	104	80	0.0	10277	144	71.8
Graig Nettles	9/6/67	3	189	0.0	10226	111	71.8
Dwight Evans	9/16/72	64	120	0.3	10569	129	71.4
Willie Stargell	9/16/62	34	99	0.1	9026	145	70.9
Tim Raines	9/11/79		-100	0.0	10359	134	70.9
Joe Torre	9/25/60	2	191	0.0	8801	129	70.8
Edgar Martinez	9/12/87	46	159	0.3	8672	148	69.9
Manny Ramirez	9/2/93	55	30	-0.6	9774	152	69.6
Alan Trammell	9/9/77	48	22	-0.6	9375	111	69.5
Dick Allen	9/3/63	25	106	0.1	7314	156	67.9

 

Player	Debut	Sept GS	Sept G	Sept IP	Sept ERA-	Sept FIP-	Career IP	Career ERA-	Career FIP-
Pedro Martinez	9/24/92	1	2	8	67	34	2827.1	67	67
Lee Smith	9/1/80		18	21.2	74	79	1289.1	76	73
Roy Halladay	9/20/98	2	2	14	41	78	2649.1	73	75
Kevin Brown	9/30/86	1	1	5	85	28	3256.1	78	79
Adam Wainwright	9/11/05		2	2	325	265	1025.2	76	81
Sam McDowell	9/15/61	1	1	6.1		84	2492.1	89	83
Rollie Fingers	9/15/68		1	1.1	939	573	1701.1	83	83
Len Barker	9/14/76	2	2	15	69	94	1323.2	108	84
Tom Gordon	9/8/88	2	5	15.2	130	68	2108	88	84
Nolan Ryan	9/11/66	1	2	3	420	168	5386	90	84
Cliff Lee	9/15/02	2	2	10.1	39	95	1789.2	85	85
Alejandro Pena	9/14/81		14	25.1	84	115	1057.2	85	85
Gary Lavelle	9/10/74		10	16.2	57	99	1085	80	86
Ubaldo Jimenez	9/26/06	1	2	7.2	72	106	1059.2	91	86
Lindy McDaniel	9/2/55	2	4	19	116	133	2139.1	92	86
Tom Bradley	9/9/69		3	2	772	196	1017.2	104	86
Ron Reed	9/26/66	2	2	8.1	59	116	2477.2	93	87
Fergie Jenkins	9/10/65		7	12.1	62	103	4500.2	87	87
Bob Moose	9/19/67	2	2	14.2	110	108	1304.1	100	87
John Hiller	9/6/65		5	6		45	1242	75	88

The lists are packed with all-time greats.

Mike Schmidt is arguably the greatest position player to make his debut during September. Schmidt finished his career with 110.5 WAR and 146 wRC+. Manny Ramirez, one of the greatest hitters ever, posted a meager 30 wRC+ in 55 plate appearances in 1993. Until 2011, that was the last time Ramirez posted a wRC+ below 120.

Pedro Martinez, he of the identical career ERA- and FIP-, threw eight innings in September 1992. It was only eight innings, but those  eight innings gave fans a preview of the Martinez who’d dominate the league in the next 13 years (25%+ strikeout rate, one walk).

Oddly enough, none of the pitchers on this list started more than two games during their September call-up. Lee Smith and Alejandro Pena appeared in the most games (18 and 14, respectively) on their way to excellent carrer FIP- numbers (73 and 85).

Fans can expect to see sneak previews of some of the best players during the coming month, but they also have a good chance to see a few players have truly remarkable runs. Players that may not contribute much outside of one spectacular September. And that’s just one of the things that makes baseball in September so much fun.