Bill Lee

HandednessBats Right · Throws Right

Listed at6 ft 3 in · 195 lb

BornOctober 21, 1909 · Plaquemine, LA, USA

MLB debutApril 29, 1934

Final gameJune 29, 1947

Seasons14 (1934–1947)

Chicago Cubs 1934–1943; Philadelphia Blue Jays 1943–1944; Boston Braves 1945; Philadelphia Phillies 1945; Boston Braves 1946; Chicago Cubs 1947

Percentile snapshot

1945 season — qualified pitchers

47.6

64.3

46.4

45.2

33.3

SHO

26.2

219

22.6

35.7

8.3

48.8

183.7

51.2

ERA

3.58

WHIP

1.552

K/9

1.23

FIP

3.87

26.2

FIP-

101.6

33.3

ERA+

106.4

41.7

sWAR

2.2

of 85 qualified 1945 pitchers (min 154 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

106.1

61.7

sWAR

33.6

97.1

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
1934	40	83	76	6	10	3	0	0	7	4	11	0	.132	.175	.171	.346	-10.4	-5.1	.166	3.1
1935	39	107	102	8	24	3	0	0	11	2	15	0	.235	.250	.265	.515	35.0	39.8	.236	5.4
1936	43	99	87	5	12	0	1	1	3	2	14	0	.138	.167	.195	.362	-12.5	-2.8	.170	4.3
1937	42	102	87	4	15	2	0	1	4	3	23	0	.172	.200	.230	.430	6.0	15.4	.200	4.0
1938	44	112	101	10	20	3	1	0	13	4	20	1	.198	.229	.248	.476	21.2	30.1	.223	6.9
1939	37	115	103	3	13	0	0	1	3	4	16	0	.126	.159	.155	.314	-29.8	-15.5	.151	3.9
1940	37	81	76	4	10	2	0	0	3	2	20	0	.132	.165	.158	.322	-20.5	-9.8	.155	-1.2
1941	28	69	59	8	11	0	0	2	5	1	9	0	.186	.200	.288	.488	26.5	38.3	.224	1.3
1942	32	81	69	2	11	2	0	0	7	7	13	0	.159	.237	.188	.425	23.4	26.9	.217	0.5
1943	26	47	43	3	8	0	0	0	1	2	9	0	.186	.222	.186	.408	7.9	19.8	.202	0.2
1944	31	79	72	5	14	0	0	0	4	4	12	0	.194	.237	.194	.431	16.9	23.0	.212	3.0
1945	29	68	55	1	8	0	0	0	3	5	10	0	.145	.217	.145	.362	-0.3	1.5	.189	2.2
1946	25	52	47	0	8	0	0	0	7	2	5	0	.170	.204	.170	.374	-9.8	6.4	.185	0.0
1947	14	3	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.333	.333	.333	.667	76.1	80.7	.307	0.1

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1934	35	29	13	14	1	16	4	218	81	74	104	9	214.3	3.40	1.362	4.37	3.72	95.3	115.0	3.1
1935	39	32	20	6	1	18	3	241	83	84	100	11	252.0	2.96	1.290	3.57	3.85	97.8	133.0	5.4
1936	43	33	18	11	1	20	4	238	95	93	102	14	258.7	3.31	1.280	3.55	4.07	101.4	121.4	4.3
1937	42	33	14	15	3	17	2	289	107	73	108	14	272.3	3.54	1.329	3.57	3.63	91.2	112.6	4.0
1938	44	37	22	9	2	19	9	281	86	74	121	18	291.0	2.66	1.220	3.74	3.49	90.9	144.4	6.9
1939	37	36	19	15	0	20	1	295	108	85	105	18	282.3	3.44	1.346	3.35	3.81	96.8	114.3	3.9
1940	37	30	9	17	0	9	1	246	118	70	70	12	211.3	5.03	1.495	2.98	3.85	101.9	75.1	-1.2
1941	28	22	8	14	1	12	0	179	70	43	62	6	167.3	3.76	1.327	3.33	3.10	87.6	93.9	1.3
1942	32	30	13	13	0	18	1	221	94	67	75	4	219.7	3.85	1.311	3.07	2.77	85.8	83.8	0.5
1943	26	19	4	12	3	6	0	153	62	48	35	8	139.0	4.01	1.446	2.27	3.77	113.3	83.0	0.2
1944	31	28	10	11	1	11	3	199	73	57	50	9	208.3	3.15	1.229	2.16	3.48	97.4	113.2	3.0
1945	29	26	9	9	0	8	1	219	73	66	25	6	183.7	3.58	1.552	1.23	3.87	101.6	106.4	2.2
1946	25	21	10	9	0	8	0	148	65	45	32	7	140.0	4.18	1.379	2.06	3.50	101.8	82.2	0.0
1947	14	2	0	2	0	0	0	26	12	14	9	2	24.0	4.50	1.667	3.38	4.78	121.6	87.3	0.1

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

467

1,098

980

165

RBI

177

.1684

OBP

.2041

SLG

.2031

OPS

.4072

Pitching

G (P)

462

378

171st-most career GS

169

195th-most career W

157

135th-most career L

182

167th-most career CG

SHO

125th-most career SHO

2,864

161st-most career IP

SO (P)

998

BB allowed

893

167th-most career BB allowed

ERA

3.542

479th-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.3429

K/9

3.14

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
1941-05-07	CHC @ PHI Gameday	3	2	2	0	2	3	8
1939-05-08	CHC @ SF Gameday	4	2	3	0	1	1	6
1936-08-21	CIN @ CHC Gameday	4	2	2	0	1	1	5
1937-08-03	PHI @ CHC Gameday	3	1	2	0	1	1	5
1935-07-07	CHC @ PIT Gameday	5	0	2	1	0	3	3

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1940-09-25	PIT @ CHC Gameday	11.0	6	1	1	1	8	0
1936-08-21	CIN @ CHC Gameday	9.0	8	2	1	1	8	1
1942-05-28	CIN @ CHC Gameday	12.0	6	1	1	2	7	1
1934-09-06	CHC @ SF Gameday	11.2	9	2	2	2	7	0
1944-09-27	CHC @ PHI Gameday	11.0	8	5	2	3	7	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.

Honors

2× 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.