Lon Warneke

Lon Warneke
Birthday:  March 28
5 time all-star (1933, 1934, 1936, 1939, 1941)
3-time 20 game winner in a single season (1932, 1934, 1935)
2-time World Series pitcher with Cubs (1932, 1935)

National League Leader:
Led NL in Wins (22) in 1932
Led NL in Winning % (22-6, .786) in 1932
Led NL in ERA (2.37) in 1932
Led NL in Shutouts (4) in 1932
Led NL in ERA+ (160) in 1932
Led NL in Complete Games (26) in 1933
Led NL in Shutouts (4) in 1936
Won 9 consecutive decisions from June 11, 1932 and July 31, 1932

Participated in the first MLB all-star game in 1933.  He struck out both Babe Ruth & Lou Gehrig in the game.

Lon Warneke was the Cubs opening day starter for 4 consecutive years from 1933-1936.  He earned a victory in all 4 games.

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This Day in Chicago Cubs History-Lon Warneke

September 4, 1932
Lon Warneke throws a 3-hit shutout over Cardinals @ Wrigley Field to pick up his 20th win of the season as the Cubs defeat the Cardinals 3-0.

September 29, 1932
Lon Warneke starts game 2 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium.  Warneke pitches an 8 inning complete game, giving up 10 hits and 5 earned runs, but takes the loss as the Yankees defeat the Cubs behind Lefty Gomez.  The Yankees will sweep the Cubs 4 games to 0 in the 1932 World Series.

April 12, 1933
Lon Warneke is selected to be the Cubs opening day starter and doesn't disappoint as he throws a 4-hit shutout against the Cardinals at Wrigley Field as the Cubs defeat the Cardinals 3-0

April 17, 1934
For the 2nd straight year, Lon Warneke is chosen to start on opening day for the Cubs.  And for the 2nd straight year, Lon Warneke throws a shutout.  He gives up just one hit and strikes out 13 Reds batters as Cubs defeat the Reds 6-0 at Wrigley Field.

July 31, 1934
Lon Warneke recorded 2 victories in the same day.  He completed the final 2 innings to win the completion of a suspended game held on July 2, 1934 and than started the regularly scheduled game and earned the victory in that game as well.

September 7, 1934
Lon Warneke pitches a complete game and gets his 20th win of the season as the cubs defeat the Giants 4-2 in New York (Forbes Field??)

April 16, 1935
Lon Warneke pitches his 3rd consecutive opening day for the Cubs and earns the victory for the 3rd consecutive year as Warneke pitches a complete game and the Cubs defeat the Cardinals 4-3 at Wrigley Field.

September 25, 1935
Lon Warneke pitches an outstanding game in his last start of the 1935 season and gets his 20th victory of the season as he allows just 2 Cardinals batters to reach base.  Frankie Frisch gets the first hit off Warneke, a double but is thrown out trying to stretch the hit to a triple.  The only other baserunner to reach base was Paul Dean, the Carindals opposing pitcher.  Warneke faces only 28 batters (one over the minimum of 27) as the Cubs defeat the Caridnals 1-0 at Sportsmans Park in st Louis.

October 2, 1935
At Navin Field, Lon Warneke pitches a 4-hit complete game shutout to give the Cubs a 1 game to 0 lead in the 1935 World Series.

October 6, 1935
At Wrigley Field, with the Cubs facing elimination in the 1935 World Series, trailing the tigers, 3 games to 1, Lon Warneke pitches another great game as he pitches 6 scoreless innings before leaving the game with a sore shoulder.  Cubs pitcher, Bill Lee finishes the game and the Cubs do send the game to a Game 6.  Cubs will lose game 6 and the Tigers win the World Series
4 games to 2.

April 14, 1936
Lon Warneke wins his 4th consecutive opening day start for the Cubs, giving up 7 runs, 4 earned as Cubs defeat the Cardinals 12-7 at Sportsmans Park in St. Louis.

Sources:

Lon Warneke-Baseball Reference

Lon Warneke-SABR

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Yesterday's Cubs-Today's Metrics

Whenever I like at a starting pitcher's WAR, I like to include innings pitched since WAR is a cumulative statistic so one pitcher who pitches many more innings has a distinct advantage. 

For example, to say Lon Warneke is better than Kerry Wood because his WAR is 24.5 and Wood's WAR was 20.7 doesn't take into consideration that Warneke pitched nearly 500 more innings with the Cubs than Warneke. 

Here is a list of all Cubs starting pitchers that have a WAR of 20.0 to 25.0.  Warneke seems to be a great comparison with another old-time Cubs pitching great, Pat Malone who has a 23.0 WAR in 1632 IP compared to Warneke's 24.5 in 1609.1 IP. 

Rank Player                       W L             IP          ERA    FIP    WAR
12       Bill Hands             85 78     1414       3.25   3.24    24.7
13       Lon Warneke    109 71    1609.1    2.8     3.47    24.5
14       Pat Malone        115 79    1632       3.57   3.85    23.0
15       Dick Ellsworth    84 110 1613.1    3.7     3.58    21.9
16       Kerry Wood         71 55     1116.2  3.69   3.9       20.7
17       Larry French        95 84     1486      3.54   3.71    20.6
18      Orval Overall       86 43     1135      1.91   2.02    20.3
19      Rick Sutcliffe        82 65     1263.1  3.75   3.61    20.2

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Lon Warneke by Season:

Warneke had 3 seasons over 4.0 WAR.  All 3 rank in the top 100 all-time for
Cubs pitchers. 

Rank      Season          Name                   W L      IP           ERA    FIP WAR
47th       1934             Lon Warneke   22 10  291.1   3.21    3.55   4.8
56th       1933             Lon Warneke   18 13  287.1   2.00    3.05   4.7
71st        1932             Lon Warneke   22  6   277        2.37   3.53    4.4
128th     1935            Lon Warneke   20 13 261.2    3.06   3.69    3.6
140th     1936            Lon Warneke   16 13 240.1    3.45    3.86   3.5

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