MLB / Players

Cliff Melton

HandednessBats Left · Throws Left

Listed at6 ft 5 in · 203 lb

BornJanuary 3, 1912 · Brevard, NC, USA

MLB debutApril 25, 1937

Final gameSeptember 29, 1944

Seasons8 (1937–1944)

New York Giants 1937–1944

Percentile snapshot

1943 season — qualified pitchers

69.6

79.4

39.2

17.6

23.5

SHO

184

40.2

38.2

32.4

42.2

30.4

186.3

53.9

ERA

3.19

47.1

WHIP

1.358

32.4

K/9

2.66

22.5

FIP

3.53

39.2

FIP-

102.5

28.4

ERA+

108.0

44.1

sWAR

2.5

53.9

of 103 qualified 1943 pitchers (min 156 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

109.0

69.8

sWAR

18.6

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	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1937	46	93	82	3	10	0	0	5	1	21	.122	.133	.122	.254	-43.6	-30.2	.120	5.5
1938	36	95	80	7	14	2	0	6	2	14	.175	.195	.200	.395	-2.4	9.0	.186	1.9
1939	41	75	66	2	12	1	0	6	1	10	.182	.194	.197	.391	-8.9	5.1	.183	2.8
1940	37	62	54	6	12	1	1	3	2	14	.222	.250	.278	.528	37.3	44.7	.245	-0.2
1941	42	71	61	2	7	0	0	4	2	16	.115	.143	.115	.258	-42.7	-27.5	.128	3.1
1942	23	53	47	5	11	0	0	5	4	12	.234	.294	.234	.528	53.6	55.6	.263	2.8
1943	34	65	54	3	8	0	1	2	8	14	.148	.258	.185	.443	27.0	27.5	.234	2.5
1944	13	26	25	0	3	0	0	1	0	7	.120	.120	.120	.240	-53.4	-32.8	.112	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
1937	46	27	20	9	7	14	2	216	72	55	142	9	248.0	2.61	1.093	5.15	3.02	77.7	148.6	5.5
1938	36	31	14	14	0	10	1	266	105	61	101	19	243.0	3.89	1.346	3.74	3.69	97.6	97.2	1.9
1939	41	23	12	15	5	9	2	214	82	65	95	7	207.3	3.56	1.346	4.12	3.33	84.7	110.5	2.8
1940	37	21	10	11	2	4	1	185	91	68	91	9	166.7	4.91	1.518	4.91	3.64	93.6	79.0	-0.2
1941	42	22	8	11	1	9	3	181	65	61	100	14	194.3	3.01	1.245	4.63	3.45	93.1	122.9	3.1
1942	23	17	11	5	1	12	2	122	42	33	61	9	143.7	2.63	1.079	3.82	2.98	90.0	125.9	2.8
1943	34	28	9	13	0	6	2	184	66	69	55	7	186.3	3.19	1.358	2.66	3.53	102.5	108.0	2.5
1944	13	10	2	2	0	1	0	78	29	19	15	5	64.3	4.06	1.508	2.10	4.01	109.5	90.2	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

272

540

469

RBI

108

.1642

OBP

.1984

SLG

.1812

OPS

.3796

Pitching

G (P)

272

179

SHO

478th-most career SHO

1,454

SO (P)

660

BB allowed

431

ERA

3.418

380th-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.2912

K/9

4.09

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	RBI	TB
1939-08-16	SF @ LAD Gameday	3	1	3	1	0	1	4
1940-07-05	PHI @ SF Gameday	5	2	3	0	0	2	3
1938-09-10	LAD @ SF Gameday	3	1	2	1	0	4	3
1940-06-08	SF @ STL Gameday	4	0	2	1	0	1	3
1940-05-20	STL @ SF Gameday	4	0	1	0	1	0	3

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1937-04-25	ATL @ SF Gameday	9.0	6	3	2	2	13	0
1937-05-02	SF @ ATL Gameday	9.0	4	1	0	3	9	0
1937-09-06	PHI @ SF Gameday	9.0	8	2	2	3	9	1
1940-07-01	ATL @ SF Gameday	9.0	6	1	1	3	9	0
1938-08-13	SF @ PHI Gameday	7.2	8	4	3	3	9	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

1× 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.