In a recent article (co-written as an exchange with Bill James), Joe Posnanski makes the following remark:

[Nolan] Ryan believed that the game belonged to the starting pitcher. It was his. Ryan HATED 1987 -- that was the year when Houston manager Hal Lanier put Ryan on a strict pitch count (Ryan did not complete a single game that year). On one level it worked: Ryan led the league in ERA. On another, it did not: Ryan finished the season 8-16. You have to think that year is part of what's driving him to recapture a little bit of the 1970s.

This is in the context of Posnanski and James' celebration of Nolan Ryan's challenging of the current conventional wisdom regarding pitchcounts. When I read it, I was curious to find out just how awful Ryan's 1987 turned out to be.

Let me make clear right from the start: I'm not here to offer any sort of opinion about pitch counts or Nolan Ryan's opinions on them in general. (Here is one interesting discussion.) I was more interested to see just how "bad" Ryan's 1987 turned out to be, given that Posnanski implies that it is one thing driving him to make over the Rangers' pitching philosophy. So, withouit any further ado, here's a a chronological graph of Ryan's career using... you guess it, his Pitching Wins Above Replacement according to Rally.

I realize that's difficult to read (you can click on it to get a close up), but I think the gist is pretty clear -- whatever Ryan may or may not feel about 1987, according to Rally's calculations, it was actually the 5th most valuable season of his long (if overrated) career. Moreover, 1987 was the most valuable season he'd had since 1977, and he never was quite as valuable again. Sure, he went 8-16, but, I dunno, maybe an offense that was the second worst in baseball had something to do with it (yes I realize that wRAA for that period isn't park-adjusted; however, when I ran my own linear weights with park adjustments, the 1987 Astros [at -67] still came out second worst to the Dodgers -at 86].).

As I wrote above, I don't have an educated opinion on pitch counts. Still, while he doesn't quote Ryan directly, it is interesting that Posnanski picks 1987 as a year that heavily influenced Ryan's opposition to pitch counts, and it turns out to have been one of Ryan's best seasons. Maybe it's the 8-16 record that sticks out. I can only assume that Nolan Ryan, as the President of a professional baseball club, is smart enough not to use pitcher wins as a measuring stick of any kind of significance... right?