Two seasons ago Pedro Feliciano led baseball by pitching in 86 games and last season he bumped his MLB-leading appearance count up to 88. It turns out, he was just getting warmed up.
Last night Feliciano appeared in his 91st game of the year for the Mets, becoming just the fifth pitcher in baseball history with 90 or more appearances in a season.
Here’s the list of 90-game pitchers:
PEDRO FELICIANO 2010 Salomon Torres 2006 Kent Tekulve 1978, 1979, 1987 Mike Marshall 1973, 1974, 1979 Wayne Granger 1969
Mike Marshall is the only pitcher to ever appear in 100 or more games in a season, logging an insane 208.1 innings in a ridiculous 106 appearances for the Dodgers in 1974. He finished 83 of those games, posting 15 victories with 21 saves and a 2.42 ERA, and received the Cy Young award.
Feliciano is a left-handed specialist, so he’s logged just 61.2 innings in his 91 appearances this season and a total of 174.1 innings in 265 appearances over the past three years. On the other hand, he has a 3.41 ERA during that span and given that he has Jerry Manuel as his manager you can be certain Feliciano has warmed up well over 100 times this season, which is pretty impressive.