MLB / Players

J. R. Richard

HandednessBats Right · Throws Right

Listed at6 ft 8 in · 222 lb

BornMarch 7, 1950 · Vienna, LA, USA

MLB debutSeptember 5, 1971

Final gameJuly 14, 1980

Seasons10 (1971–1980)

Houston Astros 1971–1980

Percentile snapshot

1979 season — qualified pitchers

83.5

94.1

90.6

22.4

98.8

SHO

89.4

220

42.4

52.9

10.6

313

100

89.4

292.3

97.6

ERA

2.71

100

WHIP

1.088

97.6

K/9

9.64

100

FIP

2.17

100

FIP-

61.3

100

ERA+

130.4

92.9

sWAR

5.7

95.3

of 86 qualified 1979 pitchers (min 162 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

109.1

70.1

sWAR

22.2

94.4

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	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1971	4	9	7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-130.4	-100.0	.000	0.1
1972	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	-0.7
1973	16	29	28	2	5	0	0	0	1	0	12	0	0	.179	.179	.179	.357	-12.2	-0.1	.166	0.4
1974	15	22	21	1	3	0	0	1	1	0	9	0	0	.143	.143	.286	.429	7.0	20.2	.192	0.1
1975	33	80	74	4	15	6	0	1	13	1	29	0	0	.203	.213	.324	.538	44.4	52.6	.247	0.0
1976	39	104	100	6	14	1	0	2	9	0	33	0	0	.140	.146	.210	.356	-8.5	4.2	.163	4.6
1977	36	100	87	10	20	0	2	2	7	1	28	1	0	.230	.247	.345	.592	60.2	63.8	.266	5.2
1978	37	107	101	8	18	0	0	1	10	1	27	1	1	.178	.186	.208	.394	5.3	14.5	.184	3.6
1979	38	108	95	6	12	1	1	2	6	1	24	0	1	.126	.134	.221	.355	-14.0	-1.7	.159	5.7
1980	17	43	39	2	6	2	0	1	3	0	15	0	0	.154	.154	.282	.436	12.9	24.0	.194	3.2

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1971	4	4	2	1	1	0	17	8	16	29	1	21.0	3.43	1.571	12.43	2.69	79.4	98.7	0.1
1972	4	1	1	0	0	0	10	9	8	8	0	6.0	13.50	3.000	12.00	4.86	143.5	25.1	-0.7
1973	16	10	6	2	2	1	54	32	38	75	2	72.0	4.00	1.278	9.38	2.45	67.3	91.2	0.4
1974	15	9	2	3	0	0	58	30	36	42	3	64.7	4.18	1.454	5.85	3.61	102.9	83.9	0.1
1975	33	31	12	10	7	1	178	99	138	176	8	203.0	4.39	1.557	7.80	3.49	102.1	77.9	0.0
1976	39	39	20	15	14	3	221	89	151	214	14	291.0	2.75	1.278	6.62	3.40	104.6	118.1	4.6
1977	36	36	18	12	13	3	212	88	104	214	18	267.0	2.97	1.184	7.21	3.18	87.8	121.9	5.2
1978	36	36	18	11	16	3	192	95	141	303	12	275.3	3.11	1.209	9.90	2.55	76.4	107.4	3.6
1979	38	38	18	13	19	4	220	88	98	313	13	292.3	2.71	1.088	9.64	2.17	61.3	130.4	5.7
1980	17	17	10	4	4	4	65	24	40	119	2	113.7	1.90	.924	9.42	1.94	57.7	176.5	3.2

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

239

602

552

RBI

181

.1685

OBP

.1765

SLG

.2518

OPS

.4283

Pitching

G (P)

238

221

107

SHO

274th-most career SHO

1,606

SO (P)

1,493

237th-most career SO (P)

BB allowed

770

286th-most career BB allowed

ERA

3.149

235th-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.2435

310th-lowest career WHIP

K/9

8.37

75th-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	BB	TB
1976-10-02	SF @ HOU Gameday	4	1	3	0	1	3	0	6
1975-07-06	HOU @ ATL Gameday	3	1	2	0	1	2	0	5
1976-08-26	HOU @ CHC Gameday	4	1	2	0	1	1	0	5
1975-08-26	HOU @ STL Gameday	2	1	2	2	0	1	1	4
1974-09-13	HOU @ SF Gameday	2	1	1	0	1	1	0	4

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1979-09-21	CIN @ HOU Gameday	11.0	7	2	2	1	15	1
1971-09-05	HOU @ SF Gameday	9.0	7	3	2	3	15	0
1979-08-03	ATL @ HOU Gameday	9.0	6	1	1	3	15	0
1977-10-02	HOU @ LAD Gameday	9.0	4	3	3	2	14	3
1976-10-02	SF @ HOU Gameday	9.0	4	1	1	1	13	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.