Batters faced

In baseball statistics, Batters Faced (BF), also known as Total Batters Faced (TBF) or Batters Facing Pitcher (BFP)^[1] is the number of batters who made a plate appearance before the pitcher in a game or in a season.

For a given game, the number of plate appearances for an offense is 3×(Innings) + (Runs scored) + (Runners left on base).

Major league records

The major league record for batters faced in a career belongs to Cy Young, who faced 29,565 batters between 1890 and 1911.^[2] Will White of the Cincinnati Reds holds the single season record; he faced 2,906 batters in 1879.^[3] The last pitcher to face 1,500 or more batters in a single season was Wilbur Wood of the 1973 Chicago White Sox.^[4]

On May 1, 1920, Leon Cadore of the Brooklyn Robins faced 96 Boston Braves batters, an MLB single game record dating back to at least 1901.^[5] Oakland's Steve McCatty is the last pitcher to face 50 or more batters in a game. McCatty pitched to 51 batters in a 14-inning complete game loss to the Seattle Mariners on August 10, 1980.^[6]

Mike Myers made 314 appearances in which he faced just one opposing batter per game, also a record.^[7]

No batters faced

It is possible for a pitcher to participate in a game without officially facing a batter. This can happen when a baserunner is picked off or caught stealing to end either the inning or the game. For example, in a game between the San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Phillies on August 4, 2016, San Francisco's Sergio Romo entered the game in the bottom of the 9th inning with the game tied and 2 out. Romo threw four pitches to Aaron Altherr before César Hernández was caught stealing second base to end the inning, after which Romo was replaced. The Giants went on to win the game in extra innings and Romo was the winning pitcher despite never officially facing a batter.^[8]

A pitcher could also not record a batter faced if he gets injured and has to be replaced before the completion of a plate appearance. Larry Yount holds the distinction of being the only pitcher in major league history to appear in the record books without ever having officially faced a batter.^[9] In Yount's case this was also true in a literal sense as he was injured while throwing a warm-up pitch on his debut and never entered the game, but was credited with doing so due to having already been announced.^[10]

See also

• Pitch count
• Basic Pitch Count Estimator

References

1. Schwartz, John. "New Measures for Pitchers". Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
2. "Pitching Season & Career Finder: Spanning Multiple Seasons or entire Careers, From 1871 to 2020, (requiring BFP>=20000), sorted by greatest Batters Faced". Stathead. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
3. "Pitching Season & Career Finder: For Single Seasons, From 1871 to 2020, (requiring BFP>=2500), sorted by greatest Batters Faced". Stathead. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
4. "Pitching Season & Career Finder: For Single Seasons, From 1900 to 2020, (requiring BFP>=1500), sorted by most recent date". Stathead. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
5. "Pitching Game Finder: In years 1901 to 2020, (requiring BF>=85), sorted by greatest BF". Stathead. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
6. "Pitching Game Finder: In years 1976 to 2020, (requiring BF>=50), sorted by greatest BF". Stathead. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
7. "Pitching Game Finder: In years 1901 to 2020, (requiring BF=1), sorted by greatest number of games in all seasons matching the selected criteria". Stathead. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
8. "San Francisco Giants at Philadelphia Phillies Box Score, August 4, 2016". Baseball Reference. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
9. "Pitching Season & Career Finder: Spanning Multiple Seasons or entire Careers, From 1871 to 2020, (requiring BFP=0), sorted by most recent date". Stathead. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
10. Kepner, Tyler (April 30, 2016). "Padres Count on a Career .200 Hitter to Guide Them to Contention". The New York Times. Retrieved September 1, 2020.