Andy Messersmith

HandednessBats Right · Throws Right

Listed at6 ft 1 in · 200 lb

BornAugust 6, 1945 · Toms River, NJ, USA

MLB debutJuly 4, 1968

Final gameJune 1, 1979

Seasons12 (1968–1979)

California Angels 1968–1972; Los Angeles Dodgers 1973–1975; Atlanta Braves 1976–1977; New York Yankees 1978; Los Angeles Dodgers 1979

Percentile snapshot

1976 season — qualified pitchers

3.4

19.5

25.3

51.7

75.9

67.8

SHO

49.4

166

89.7

78.2

27.6

135

70.1

43.7

207.3

37.9

ERA

3.04

73.6

WHIP

1.158

85.1

K/9

5.86

80.5

FIP

3.32

FIP-

89.1

75.9

ERA+

122.8

80.5

sWAR

3.9

73.6

of 88 qualified 1976 pitchers (min 162 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

120.7

90.4

sWAR

40.1

97.9

ERA+ measured against qualified careers (1,000+ IP), 1,334 of them; sWAR measured against every career in history, 24,011 of them. Only era-adjusted career stats carry a percentile — a raw career total gets a rank instead, because pooling the 1890s with the 2020s is a choice, not a measurement.

Season by season

Batting

Season	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1968	29	24	20	1	2	1	0	1	0	10	0	.100	.100	.150	.250	-48.4	-23.9	.114	1.5
1969	42	91	77	5	12	2	0	5	8	28	0	.156	.235	.182	.417	21.3	21.0	.212	5.5
1970	38	75	70	4	11	3	1	2	0	28	0	.157	.157	.243	.400	-2.9	11.0	.179	3.3
1971	39	104	93	8	16	2	2	5	5	30	0	.172	.214	.258	.472	32.4	38.8	.223	3.9
1972	26	58	53	2	10	3	0	0	3	13	1	.189	.232	.245	.477	40.0	46.3	.231	2.2
1973	34	99	89	3	15	3	0	6	5	16	0	.169	.213	.202	.415	16.2	19.1	.201	4.9
1974	39	113	96	12	23	8	1	11	11	28	0	.240	.312	.354	.666	93.3	91.7	.317	6.8
1975	44	123	108	8	17	4	0	9	7	25	0	.157	.212	.194	.406	12.7	16.9	.201	7.8
1976	29	77	67	3	12	1	0	10	4	19	0	.179	.225	.194	.419	9.1	16.6	.208	3.9
1977	16	39	34	2	4	2	1	3	3	9	0	.118	.189	.265	.454	4.5	14.3	.211	1.0
1978	6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	-0.3
1979	11	23	22	1	2	1	0	2	0	6	0	.091	.091	.136	.227	-56.3	-38.1	.102	-0.4

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1968	28	5	4	2	4	2	1	44	20	35	74	3	81.3	2.21	.971	8.19	2.21	76.2	131.1	1.5
1969	40	33	16	11	2	10	2	169	70	100	211	17	250.0	2.52	1.076	7.60	2.82	81.0	138.0	5.5
1970	37	26	11	10	5	6	1	144	65	78	162	21	194.7	3.01	1.140	7.49	3.46	96.5	119.3	3.3
1971	38	38	20	13	0	14	4	224	92	121	179	16	276.7	2.99	1.247	5.82	3.20	99.5	107.6	3.9
1972	25	21	8	11	2	10	3	125	53	68	142	5	169.7	2.81	1.138	7.53	2.22	76.0	103.8	2.2
1973	33	33	14	10	0	10	3	196	75	77	177	24	249.7	2.70	1.093	6.38	3.38	97.1	128.8	4.9
1974	39	39	20	6	0	13	3	227	84	94	221	24	292.3	2.59	1.098	6.80	3.14	91.1	133.2	6.8
1975	42	40	19	14	1	19	7	244	82	96	213	22	321.7	2.29	1.057	5.96	3.12	90.8	149.9	7.8
1976	29	28	11	11	1	12	3	166	70	74	135	14	207.3	3.04	1.158	5.86	3.32	89.1	122.8	3.9
1977	16	16	5	4	0	1	0	101	50	39	69	12	102.3	4.40	1.368	6.07	4.11	94.3	99.2	1.0
1978	6	5	0	3	0	0	0	24	14	15	16	7	22.3	5.64	1.746	6.45	7.34	200.6	64.9	-0.3
1979	11	11	2	4	0	1	0	55	34	34	26	9	62.3	4.91	1.428	3.75	5.37	146.3	74.8	-0.4

sWAR is the season TOTAL for a player who both hit and pitched: the record book carries one figure per season, not a split, so the same number appears on both lines rather than being counted twice.

Career totals

Batting

353

826

729

124

RBI

212

.1701

OBP

.2192

SLG

.2318

OPS

.4510

Pitching

G (P)

344

295

373rd-most career GS

130

376th-most career W

430th-most career CG

SHO

148th-most career SHO

2,230

338th-most career IP

SO (P)

1,625

186th-most career SO (P)

BB allowed

831

226th-most career BB allowed

ERA

2.861

130th-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.1433

68th-lowest career WHIP

K/9

6.56

277th-highest career K/9

A total is called out only where it ranks in the all-time top 500; hover a figure for its rank and the size of the field it was ranked in. Ranks are absolute facts and carry no percentile — the population for "career home runs" would be an editorial choice, and the rank is not.

Best games

Batting

Date	Game	AB	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	TB
1975-04-25	LAD @ SF Gameday	4	2	3	3	0	1	6
1970-05-09	NYY @ LAA Gameday	3	2	2	0	1	1	5
1971-09-15	LAA @ KC Gameday	4	1	1	0	1	2	4
1971-04-08	KC @ LAA Gameday	2	1	1	0	1	1	4
1974-04-16	LAD @ CIN Gameday	2	1	1	0	1	1	4

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
1970-07-10	MIN @ LAA Gameday	9.0	6	1	1	3	13
1973-05-28	PHI @ LAD Gameday	9.0	7	1	1	1	12
1975-06-09	WSH @ LAD Gameday	9.0	4	0	0	3	12
1969-09-14	LAA @ MIL Gameday	9.0	3	2	2	3	11
1970-04-07	LAA @ MIL Gameday	9.0	4	0	0	4	11

Ranked from our own play-by-play game log, which begins in 1901 — not from the record book, so a career played outside it shows nothing here rather than a short list.

Honors

2× Gold Glove4× All-Star

Major awards only — the awards table also records Player of the Week, and forty of those would bury seven MVPs. Hover for the years.