Cardinals lefty Randy Choate is the LOOGY king

Ryan Fagan

Cardinals lefty Randy Choate is the LOOGY king image

Randy Choate is the loogiest loogy who ever has loogied.

Some of you know exactly what I’m talking about. For the rest: A “LOOGY” is baseball shorthand for Left-handed One-Out Guy (hey, it’s not perfect acronym, but it’s catchy and that’s enough sometimes). These are the relievers whose primary role is to get the other team’s best left-handed hitter out in key situations late in a game.

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In 2015, Choate has appeared in 70 games for the Cardinals. He’s pitched 27 innings. 

Total.

No reliever in history has matched that high-appearances/low-innings combo. MLB has seen seven other seasons in which a pitcher made at least 70 appearances and threw fewer than 40 innings in a season, including one other lefty in 2015. Mark Rzepczynski, who’s split his time between Cleveland and San Diego has 70 games with 33 2/3 innings.

He’s the only one of those seven with an innings total under 36.

Only one reliever has made at least 60 appearances with fewer than 30 innings. In 1992, Boston’s Tony Fossas barely snuck under those parameters — 60 games, 29 2/3 innings. 

When Jesse Orosco, who is considered the patron saint of loogies, was in his age 42 season with the Orioles in 1999, he appeared in 65 games and pitched 32 innings. That’s as close as Orosco came to what Choate’s done this season.

Choate, who turned 40 on September 5, is also the only pitcher in MLB history with at least 80 appearances and fewer than 40 innings — in 2012, he pitched in 80 games, with 38 2/3 innings for the Marlins and Dodgers.

He’s been the loogiest lefty ever in 2015, but Choate hasn’t been the best left-handed reliever ever. He’s been more along the lines of effective instead of exceptional, as you’ll see when we look at Choate’s 70 appearances this season … 

— The basics: He has a 3.67 ERA (and an identical 3.67 FIP), with 29 hits allowed, 21 strikeouts and 1.259 WHIP. 

— Overall, he’s faced 115 batters and gotten 81 outs. 

— He’s faced left-handed hitters 92 times. Those hitters own a .268 average and .330 on-base percentage. He’s faced right-handed hitters 23 times, and they’re batting .333 with a .391 on-base percentage.

— He has 51 one-batter outings. In those 51 appearances, he’s gotten his lone batter out 33 times (12 via strikeout) and allowed the hitter to reach base 18 times (14 hits, three walks and one hit by pitch). He’s induced one ground-ball double play.

— He has four one-pitch appearances, 10 two-pitch outings, 11 three-pitch outings and 11 four-pitch outings.

— His longest appearance is 1 2/3 innings, which he’s done twice. In terms of batters faced, it’s seven, back in May in a game against Cleveland. In that one, he threw 28 pitches (also a season high), allowed one hit and hit one batter but didn’t allow any runs. 

Ryan Fagan

Ryan Fagan Photo

Ryan Fagan, the national MLB writer for The Sporting News, has been a Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2016. He also dabbles in college hoops and other sports. And, yeah, he has way too many junk wax baseball cards.