Do some pitchers consistently get more support

[brett]

I noticed that Carlton in '72 got a lot more run support than his team averaged for other starters. Is it possible that pitchers inspire their teams to higher levels of offense?

Carlton's case may be special because his team had little to play for, but might have "woken up" when he pitched, or may have hung in longer because he kept them close.

I think he had 58 consecutive innings without an earned run.

[RuthMayBond]

I noticed that Carlton in '72 got a lot more run support than his team averaged for other starters. Is it possible that pitchers inspire their teams to higher levels of offense?

I doubt it, although support level certainly varies (from Ed Smith's 77% of average-level support to Al Spalding's 153% of average-level support)

<I think he had 58 consecutive innings without an earned run.>

Without going through all the game logs, that is certainly possible in late July-early August

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi...&t=p&year=1972

[babaganoosh]

I think it's very possible. This isn't based on any statistical data or anything, but it SHOULD work out that a pitcher gets more or elss support on a consistant basis.

Consider 2 pitchers, a groundball front of the rotation guy, and then the other guy destined to be a 5th starter. The ace of your staff will have a better defense playing behind him because of his groundball tendencies, and so the team may elect to play a better defensive palyer for that game as opposed to who the regular might be. Meanwhile, the 5th starter, with a higher ERA, may need more run support and so the manager isn't likely to rest a lot of his regulars for that game and throw out the better offensive line-up.

Also, some pitchers have specific catchers they work with. Easy example, Tim Wakefield had Kevin Cash last year I believe. And though Varitek didn't exactly light up the boxscores last year, he's still a much better offensive option than Cash.

So based on those, I think it is very possible for one pitcher to have consistantly more or less support than the rest of the staff, but whether that works itself out over the years, I'm not 100% sure.