About

Who is Gnopple?  He’s the guy who brought you The Lenny DiNardo Blog.What is Loogy? As you probably know, it stands for Lefty One Out Guy – a left-handed reliever that you bring it to get . . . one out. Anyway, we’ll be discussing right-handed pitchers as well, we just think the Loogy Blog sounds cool.

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For those interested in the “history” of the Loogy, I’d encourage you to check out the two part series from Steve Treder of the Hardball Times.  The Harball Times is my go-to site on a regular basis for all things statistical and fantastical.  Here’s a brief blurb from “The History of the LOOGY: Part One”:

There are differing intensities of LOOGYness, of course. But how about we come up with some broad criteria to capture the general idea. Let’s define a LOOGY season as any by a left-handed pitcher that meets the following conditions:

- At least 20 appearances
- Fewer than 1.20 innings per appearance
- Fewer than 20% Saves per appearance

It turns out that through 2004, there have been exactly 799 pitcher-seasons in major league history meeting these criteria.

The Primordial LOOGY Ooze

I’ll give you three guesses to name the first among these 799, and in what season. If you guess Tony Fossas, you’re way wrong. Jesse Orosco? Bzzzt. Steve Hamilton? I’m afraid you’re toast.

The first LOOGY season in major league history that meets our definition occurred in 1960. It was recorded by none other than Leo Kiely of the Kansas City A’s, managed by Bob Elliott, in his only year as a big league skipper. Granted, Kiely just squeaks in at the limit of the definition here, with exactly 20 appearances and 20 2/3 innings in the early months of that season. Kiely was rather effective in the role, in his soft-tossing control artist kind of way, but not enough to prevent the Athletics from letting him go in June, never to appear in the majors again. At least he went out in historic fashion.

And, yes, Leo Kiely was formerly a member of the Red Sox Caliphate (I don’t like the term Red Sox Nation, especially as the term was partially coined by the Worst Sportswriter in Baseball).

The History of the LOOGY: Part One (THT)
The History of the LOOGY: Part Two (THT)