Satur... Uh, SUNday Sporcle: Steady Starters

Last week’s results

64 of you took on the challenge of naming the most regular relievers, and it proved tough. The average score was only 9 out of the 27, for 33%. Only four people managed to reach the two-thirds mark, though one person aced the test getting all 27. The most well-recognized name was that of Archie Bradley, correctly listed on all but three attempts, with Brad Ziegler and Andrew Chafin also being recognized by over 80% of participants. At the other end... you can perhaps be forgiven for forgetting Lance Cormier, with his regular season being all the way back in 2005. But scoring under 5% as well was Jake Barrett, whose year was considerably more current (2016, and played for Arizona as recently as 2018).

How soon they forget... Here’s the full list, and the percentage who got them right:

• Archie Bradley - 95.3%
• Brad Ziegler - 87.5%
• Andrew Chafin - 82.8%
• Byung-Hyun Kim - 79.7%
• Jose Valverde - 70.3%
• Junior Guerra - 45.3%
• Yoan Lopez - 39.1%
• David Hernandez - 35.9%
• Chad Qualls - 35.9%
• Brandon Lyon - 34.4%
• Stefan Crichton - 32.8%
• Daniel Hudson - 28.1%
• Mike Koplove - 23.4%
• Heath Bell - 21.9%
• Randall Delgado - 20.3%
• Oscar Villarreal - 20.3%
• Mike Myers - 20.3%
• Tony Pena - 18.8%
• J.C. Gutierrez - 18.8%
• Yoshihisa Hirano - 17.2%
• Jorge De La Rosa - 15.6%
• Oliver Perez - 12.5%
• Aaron Heilman - 12.5%
• Randy Choate - 10.9%
• Luis Vizcaino - 6.3%
• Jake Barrett - 4.7%
• Lance Cormier - 4.7%

This week’s Sporcle

Should be a little easier, with starting pitchers generally being a bit more memorable than their relief brethren. The line here was drawn at more than one-sixth of games played in a season. For a regular i.e. non-COVID campaign that means 28 or more starts. This year, that works out at 11 or more starts. 32 different players have qualified by those criteria, though the number has ranged quite widely. In 2002 and 2017, we saw four such starters, while in both 2015 and 2016, there was only one man (not the same guy!). It does seem generally to correlate with team performance, though in 2001 there were just a pair of regulars. I trust you won’t be forgetting their names... :)

The quiz is below or here for those on mobile