wells	harang
6-16, 5.65	14-4, 3.64

the cards are now 0-6 since the ankiel-hgh allegation came out. likewise, toronto is 0-5 since troy glaus was unmasked as a steroid purchaser, while the orioles are 0-3 since the jay gibbons/steroid revelation. last season, you might recall, the diamondbacks were in first place by a game and a half the day the jason grimsley affidavit hit the papers (june 7); they promptly lost 5 in a row and 20 of their next 23 to fall all the way to the bottom of the division.

rather obviously, these sorts of disclosures are a bit of a distraction. of particular note, 3 of the 4 teams in question abruptly stopped hitting after their clubhouse was linked to peds:

* * * * * * * * *

1. john raleigh, 1909: .111 (1-10)
2. anthony reyes, 2007: .125 (2-14)
3. danny jackson, 1995: 143 (2-12)
4. gus thompson, 1906: .154 (2-11)
5. wish egan, 1906: .182 (2-9)

there are way too many guys on this list to name them all. but if we winnow it to include only guys with reyes' current record (2-14) or worse, it gets a lot shorter --- fewer than 30. and if we further restrict it to pitchers who, like reyes, were used predominantly as starting pitchers in their terrible year (at least 2/3 of their appearances), it's a very exclusive roster --- just 6 guys:

reynolds and nabors barely pitched in the big leagues again after their face-plant seasons, while jim abbott (who had a string of excellent years behind him) missed most of the next two seasons and only made another 20 mlb starts. but keough and deleon both provide at least a little hope. the season after going 2-17, keough went 16-13 and finished 4th in the league in era. he followed that up with a solid year in 1981. unfortunately, it didn't last; he walked 101 men in 1982 and lost 18 games, then hurt his arm and was out of the league by age 30.

deleon is the most comparable pitcher to reyes on this list. he reaped his banner crop of losses at about the same age as anthony, and at about the same point in his career (3d season); note also that both pitchers' won-loss and era disagree sharply w/ their opponent avgs; both were better than league average in 2 of the 3 categories and close to average in the 3d category. when we look at deleon's situational splits (bless you, baseball-reference.com), we find an additional correspondence w/ reyes --- deleon in 1985 was way above league average with the bases empty but got killed with runners in scoring position. he brought that problem under control the following year and pitched pretty effectively for 6 seasons, mostly in st louis. if you're 30 or older, you remember this guy; he spent 4 1/2 years w/ the cards (1988-1992) and made 145 starts, won a league strikeout title (1989) and maintained a league-average era. he went 29-22 his first couple of years in the loo and, at age 28, seemed poised to become an all-star; but a 7-19 record in 1990 dashed those hopes, and in 1991 he contrived to win just 5 games despite finishing 6th in the league in era. in august 1992 the cardinals released him; he would make only 6 more major-league starts. . . . . all the same, deleon lasted 10 seasons after the 2-19 debacle and turned in 6 more-than-respectable years immediately following it --- a 3.60 era between 1986 and 1991.

though justifiably perceived as an underachiever, deleon nevertheless was a more-than-useful pitcher for several years. i suspect reyes will have a similar career. i doubt he will have it in st. louis.