Bill Donovan

HandednessBats Switch · Throws Right

Listed at5 ft 11 in · 190 lb

BornOctober 13, 1876 · Lawrence, MA, USA

MLB debutApril 22, 1898

Final gameSeptember 2, 1918

Seasons18 (1898–1918)

Washington Senators 1898; Brooklyn Superbas 1899–1902; Detroit Tigers 1903–1912; New York Yankees 1915–1916; Detroit Tigers 1918

Percentile snapshot

1911 season — qualified pitchers

26.4

41.8

54.9

58.2

SHO

31.9

160

70.3

59.3

45.1

53.8

37.4

168.3

30.8

ERA

3.31

40.7

WHIP

1.331

42.9

K/9

4.33

51.6

FIP

3.45

38.5

FIP-

101.0

42.9

ERA+

103.2

45.1

sWAR

2.2

52.7

of 92 qualified 1911 pitchers (min 154 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

105.7

sWAR

35.7

97.4

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	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1898	39	110	103	11	17	2	2	2	8	4	28	2	.165	.211	.282	.493	41.7	40.6	.238	-0.3
1899	5	13	13	2	3	1	0	0	0	0	2	0	.231	.231	.308	.538	45.5	47.0	.251	0.1
1900	5	13	13	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	4	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-90.5	-100.0	.000	-0.8
1901	46	151	135	16	23	3	0	2	13	8	27	1	.170	.217	.237	.454	34.0	31.7	.221	5.5
1902	48	174	161	16	28	3	2	1	16	9	26	7	.174	.227	.236	.463	42.6	42.6	.232	2.8
1903	40	137	124	11	30	3	2	0	12	4	34	3	.242	.266	.298	.564	69.5	70.6	.263	5.8
1904	46	148	140	12	38	2	1	1	6	3	41	2	.271	.287	.321	.608	90.2	94.0	.287	3.9
1905	44	156	130	16	25	4	0	0	5	12	28	8	.192	.266	.223	.489	58.1	54.6	.248	3.3
1906	28	96	91	5	11	0	1	0	2	1	32	6	.121	.130	.143	.273	-27.3	-16.0	.132	0.4
1907	37	119	109	20	29	7	2	0	19	6	34	4	.266	.304	.367	.671	107.5	110.8	.325	4.9
1908	30	93	82	5	13	1	0	0	2	10	26	2	.159	.250	.171	.421	40.9	35.2	.224	3.6
1909	22	53	45	6	9	0	0	0	1	2	9	0	.200	.250	.200	.450	37.3	39.8	.229	1.9
1910	26	76	69	6	10	1	0	0	2	5	24	0	.145	.203	.159	.362	6.2	10.4	.188	2.3
1911	24	72	60	11	12	3	1	1	6	11	20	1	.200	.324	.333	.657	85.0	81.2	.327	2.2
1912	6	14	13	3	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	.077	.143	.077	.220	-33.5	-37.4	.124	0.3
1915	10	13	12	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	6	0	.083	.154	.083	.237	-29.4	-28.8	.135	-0.6
1916	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.0
1918	2	2	2	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	.500	.500	.500	1.000	211.9	205.3	.487	0.2

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1898	17	7	1	6	0	6	0	88	42	69	36	0	88.0	4.30	1.784	3.68	4.54	126.0	83.9	-0.3
1899	5	2	1	2	1	2	0	35	12	13	11	0	25.0	4.32	1.920	3.96	3.62	94.0	89.1	0.1
1900	5	4	1	2	0	2	0	36	23	18	13	0	31.0	6.68	1.742	3.77	4.02	108.8	55.3	-0.8
1901	45	38	25	15	3	36	2	324	108	152	226	1	351.0	2.77	1.356	5.79	3.05	92.3	119.4	5.5
1902	35	33	17	15	1	30	4	250	92	111	170	1	297.7	2.78	1.213	5.14	2.62	94.4	99.8	2.8
1903	35	34	17	16	0	34	4	247	78	95	187	3	307.0	2.29	1.114	5.48	2.66	91.7	126.9	5.8
1904	34	34	16	16	0	30	3	251	80	94	137	5	293.0	2.46	1.177	4.21	2.86	112.5	103.3	3.9
1905	34	32	18	15	0	27	5	236	81	101	135	2	280.7	2.60	1.201	4.33	2.78	103.7	103.1	3.3
1906	25	25	9	15	0	22	0	221	74	72	85	4	211.7	3.15	1.384	3.61	3.05	109.6	88.6	0.4
1907	32	28	25	4	1	27	3	222	66	82	123	3	271.0	2.19	1.122	4.08	2.57	98.5	119.3	4.9
1908	29	28	18	7	0	25	6	210	56	53	141	2	242.7	2.08	1.084	5.23	1.92	78.4	118.2	3.6
1909	21	17	8	7	2	13	4	121	36	60	76	0	140.3	2.31	1.290	4.87	2.62	102.3	110.7	1.9
1910	26	23	17	7	0	20	3	184	56	61	107	4	206.7	2.44	1.185	4.66	2.45	92.1	109.2	2.3
1911	20	19	10	9	0	15	1	160	62	64	81	4	168.3	3.31	1.331	4.33	3.45	101.0	103.2	2.2
1912	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	5	1	2	6	0	10.0	0.90	.700	5.40	2.65	77.7	378.9	0.3
1915	9	1	0	3	0	0	0	35	18	10	17	1	33.7	4.81	1.337	4.54	2.73	93.7	60.6	-0.6
1916	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	1.0	0.00	2.000	0.00	5.33	186.0	—	0.0
1918	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	5	1	1	1	0	6.0	1.50	1.000	1.50	2.33	86.3	179.8	0.2

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

459

1,440

1,302

142

251

RBI

342

.1928

OBP

.2412

SLG

.2488

OPS

.4900

Pitching

G (P)

378

327

277th-most career GS

185

159th-most career W

139

217th-most career L

289

50th-most career CG

SHO

71st-most career SHO

2,965

144th-most career IP

SO (P)

1,552

216th-most career SO (P)

BB allowed

1,059

95th-most career BB allowed

ERA

2.690

81st-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.2447

315th-lowest career WHIP

K/9

4.71

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	3B	HR	RBI	TB
1903-07-10	DET @ MIN Gameday	5	1	4	1	1	0	4	7
1907-07-13	NYY @ DET Gameday	3	1	3	1	1	0	4	6
1911-06-08	DET @ ATH Gameday	4	1	3	2	0	0	2	5
1902-09-08	STL @ LAD Gameday	4	2	2	0	0	1	3	5
1901-06-20	CIN @ LAD Gameday	4	2	2	0	0	1	2	5

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1902-08-17	LAD @ STL Gameday	18.0	14	7	7	7	13	0
1907-10-08	DET @ CHC Gameday	12.0	10	3	1	3	12	0
1907-09-30	DET @ ATH Gameday	17.0	21	9	0	3	11	1
1904-09-12	DET @ BAL Gameday	9.2	11	4	4	3	11	0
1901-08-09	ATL @ LAD Gameday	9.0	6	3	3	3	11	0

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.