Highest Percentage of TLLs out of Total Starter Losses (since 1950)

To be eligible for this list, a pitcher must have accrued at least 8 Tough Luck Losses in his career.

As usual, all links are to Baseball-Reference. This leaderboard is based on one generated by B-Ref’s Play Index, though I’ve added Starter Losses and calculated TLL% myself. Only losses as a starter since 1950 are included; that’s why there may be discrepancies between a player’s “Starter L” figure and his career records.

UPDATE: I’ve added the 2011 results to the leaderboard, though it made very little difference. The only two changes were with Dan Haren (who had 1 TLL in 10 losses) dropping a couple spots to 9th and Josh Beckett (0 TLLs in 7 losses) dropping 5 spots to 14th. The only other active pitcher on the list is Johan Santana, who missed the entire 2011 season but moved up 2 spots  to 8th as a result. The next highest active pitcher is Roy Halladay at 8.89% (8 TLLs in 90 career starter losses).  The only other active player above 8% is Bartolo Colon, at 8.04% (9 TLLs out of 114 losses). The biggest threat among active pitchers is Cole Hamels, who has 7 TLLs–1 too few to qualify for this list–but only 54 losses, good for a 13.0% TLL percentage. If he gets a TLL or two next season, he will vault right into the top 10.

Since you probably don’t know much about the guys at the top of this list (I hadn’t even heard of Stigman before), here are some brief bios:

Dick Stigman was born in Nimrod, MN. He pitched from 1960-1966 for the Indians, Twins, and Red Sox, making the All-Star Team in his rookie year despite finishing the year with a 5-11 record and a 4.53 ERA (he did have 9 saves). He had 3 TLLs in 1963, which helps explain why he went just 15-15 despite a 3.25 ERA. He followed that up with 4 TLLs in 1964, going 6-15 with a 4.03 ERA.

Hank Aguirre was a reliever for much of his career, though he was an All-Star as a starter for the Tigers in 1962. Ben McDonald was the 1st overall pick of the 1989 draft, but never really lived up to the hype in a 9-year career. His full name is “Larry Benard McDonald”… I wonder if opposing fans ever taunted him by chanting “Laaaaaarrrry”?