Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
December 18, 2006
So Long, Brad!

Brad Radke retires tomorrow:

"It'll be a sad day because he's not going to be pitching for us anymore," manager Ron Gardenhire said Sunday. "And it's also going to be a great day because he's done so much for our organization. He started with us, and he never left us. That's something our organization is very, very proud of."

Radke, 34, privately has planned to retire since spring training. The pain in his right shoulder was simply too much. To pitch again, doctors said, Radke would require surgery to repair his torn labrum, and the recovery would likely keep him out for much of 2007.

Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson occasionally spoke to Radke about delaying his retirement.

"I gave him one last pitch a couple days after the season," Anderson said. "My last thing was, 'Hey, Rad, don't announce anything. Why don't you see how you feel? And come January or February, if you get the urge to do it again, maybe come on down [to spring training] and see what you've got.'

"He said, 'You know, I've made up my mind.' "

Radke's strength as a pitcher was keeping free pases to a minimum. He issued just 445 walks in 2451 career innings. Over his career, his BB per 9 is third in the majors among pitchers with at least 1500 innings. On the downside, he allowed home runs at a high rate, tied for ninth in the majors over the same period. He was not a great pitcher, but on better Twins teams early in his career he likely would have won a lot more games.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:59 AM | Players | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Radke's career 1.63 BB/9 is actually second only to Bob Tewksbury in the Day-by-Day database, as both Wells & Maddux walked guys at higher rates prior to 1995. Minimum 1500 innings from 1974 to the present.

Radke drops to third with 1000 innings (Dan Quisenberry) and fifth with 500 (Gary Nolan and Josh Towers). Very impressive control.

Posted by: Ryne at December 18, 2006 11:50 AM

Homers aren't too much of a problem if no one is one base -- via the walk.

Posted by: rbj at December 18, 2006 02:01 PM

As a long time Twins fan, I am sad to see him go. But from a statistical point of view, the weirdest thing about Radke was always his absolutely atrocious first innings. I think if you took away all his first inning stats, we would be argueing about his hall of fame credentials right now.

ivan

Posted by: Ivan at December 18, 2006 04:10 PM
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