MLB / Players

Denny McLain

HandednessBats Right · Throws Right

Listed at6 ft 1 in · 185 lb

BornMarch 29, 1944 · Chicago, IL, USA

MLB debutSeptember 21, 1963

Final gameSeptember 12, 1972

Seasons10 (1963–1972)

Detroit Tigers 1963–1970; Washington Senators 1971; Atlanta Braves 1972; Oakland Athletics 1972

Percentile snapshot

1971 season — qualified pitchers

24.4

36.6

20.7

40.2

SHO

48.8

233

37.8

103

8.5

40.2

103

24.4

2.4

216.7

35.4

ERA

4.28

7.3

WHIP

1.408

13.4

K/9

4.28

18.3

FIP

4.31

3.7

FIP-

125.2

1.2

ERA+

80.4

4.9

sWAR

-0.3

2.4

of 83 qualified 1971 pitchers (min 159 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

101.5

sWAR

18.9

93.1

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
1963	3	7	5	1	1	0	0	1	2	0	1	0	.200	.167	.800	.967	113.4	151.2	.344	0.2
1964	20	42	37	2	5	0	0	0	2	1	15	0	.135	.158	.135	.293	-33.6	-17.7	.139	0.4
1965	33	85	74	2	4	0	0	0	3	6	32	0	.054	.123	.054	.178	-58.3	-47.7	.100	4.2
1966	38	103	93	10	17	2	0	0	5	5	39	1	.183	.224	.204	.429	17.3	23.5	.204	1.4
1967	38	92	85	3	10	0	0	0	0	2	37	0	.118	.138	.118	.256	-41.6	-24.3	.124	0.4
1968	44	128	111	7	18	1	1	0	4	1	37	0	.162	.170	.189	.359	-10.6	8.1	.168	8.2
1969	42	125	106	5	17	0	0	0	8	4	41	0	.160	.188	.160	.348	-15.9	-2.9	.168	6.7
1970	14	34	31	2	2	1	0	0	0	0	13	0	.065	.065	.097	.161	-80.7	-56.1	.072	-0.3
1971	33	71	58	0	6	1	1	0	7	4	22	0	.103	.161	.155	.316	-20.8	-9.3	.158	-0.3
1972	20	22	16	0	2	0	0	0	0	2	7	0	.125	.222	.125	.347	-3.6	-1.6	.187	-2.1

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1963	3	3	2	1	0	2	0	20	10	16	22	2	21.0	4.29	1.714	9.43	3.89	104.2	87.1	0.2
1964	19	16	4	5	0	3	0	84	45	37	70	16	100.0	4.05	1.210	6.30	4.28	116.6	90.6	0.4
1965	33	29	16	6	1	13	4	174	64	62	192	25	220.3	2.61	1.071	7.84	3.00	86.0	133.6	4.2
1966	38	38	20	14	0	14	4	205	115	104	192	42	264.3	3.92	1.169	6.54	4.26	121.8	89.4	1.4
1967	37	37	17	16	0	10	3	209	99	73	161	35	235.0	3.79	1.200	6.17	3.96	120.2	86.8	0.4
1968	41	41	31	6	0	28	6	241	73	63	280	31	336.0	1.96	.905	7.50	2.37	78.4	154.8	8.2
1969	42	41	24	9	0	23	9	288	101	67	181	25	325.0	2.80	1.092	5.01	2.90	77.8	133.4	6.7
1970	14	14	3	5	0	1	0	100	47	28	52	19	91.3	4.63	1.401	5.12	5.01	134.3	80.6	-0.3
1971	33	32	10	22	0	9	3	233	103	72	103	31	216.7	4.28	1.408	4.28	4.31	125.2	80.4	-0.3
1972	20	13	4	7	1	2	0	92	54	26	29	16	76.3	6.37	1.546	3.42	5.48	157.3	55.1	-2.1

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

285

709

616

RBI

244

.1331

OBP

.1659

SLG

.1526

OPS

.3185

Pitching

G (P)

280

264

480th-most career GS

131

369th-most career W

105

384th-most career CG

SHO

125th-most career SHO

1,886

SO (P)

1,282

336th-most career SO (P)

BB allowed

548

ERA

3.393

369th-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.1633

96th-lowest career WHIP

K/9

6.12

347th-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	3B	HR	RBI	BB	TB
1968-09-10	DET @ LAA Gameday	4	1	3	0	1	0	2	0	5
1963-09-21	CWS @ DET Gameday	3	1	1	0	0	1	1	0	4
1969-04-16	DET @ CLE Gameday	4	1	3	0	0	0	1	0	3
1966-06-16	DET @ BOS Gameday	4	1	2	1	0	0	1	1	3
1966-07-09	DET @ MIN Gameday	3	1	2	1	0	0	0	1	3

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1965-06-15	BOS @ DET Gameday	6.2	6	2	2	2	14	0
1968-05-29	DET @ LAA Gameday	9.0	4	0	0	1	13	0
1965-07-21	CLE @ DET Gameday	9.0	3	1	1	0	12	1
1965-09-21	CWS @ DET Gameday	9.0	7	2	2	2	12	2
1967-06-19	LAA @ DET Gameday	9.0	4	1	1	1	12	1

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× Cy Young Award1× Most Valuable Player3× 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.