MLB / Players

Jim Palmer

HandednessBats Right · Throws Right

Listed at6 ft 3 in · 190 lb

BornOctober 15, 1945 · New York, NY, USA

MLB debutApril 17, 1965

Final gameMay 12, 1984

Seasons19 (1965–1984)

Baltimore Orioles 1965–1967; Baltimore Orioles 1969–1984

Percentile snapshot

1982 season — qualified pitchers

68.5

49.4

70.8

96.6

83.1

65.2

SHO

60.7

195

65.2

71.9

55.1

103

41.6

29.2

227.0

ERA

3.13

85.4

WHIP

1.137

93.3

K/9

4.08

24.7

FIP

3.93

38.2

FIP-

97.2

52.8

ERA+

129.0

92.1

sWAR

4.6

87.6

of 90 qualified 1982 pitchers (min 163 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

126.0

94.8

sWAR

74.9

99.7

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
1965	29	27	26	2	5	0	0	1	3	1	10	0	.192	.222	.308	.530	42.8	49.0	.241	0.8
1966	36	78	73	11	7	1	0	1	5	3	33	0	.096	.132	.151	.282	-29.9	-18.1	.134	1.6
1967	9	18	13	2	1	1	0	0	1	2	9	0	.077	.200	.154	.354	9.1	6.9	.188	0.7
1969	27	70	64	5	13	3	0	0	6	3	30	0	.203	.235	.250	.485	30.3	37.1	.229	4.8
1970	44	122	113	13	17	0	0	1	9	2	48	0	.150	.165	.177	.342	-18.5	-4.8	.160	6.4
1971	38	116	102	7	20	1	0	0	9	3	41	1	.196	.219	.206	.425	13.8	23.3	.203	5.4
1972	36	106	98	12	22	3	1	0	8	2	36	0	.224	.240	.276	.516	43.7	53.1	.243	7.0
1973	38	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	7.6
1974	26	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	2.2
1975	39	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	8.7
1976	40	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	6.2
1977	39	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	6.5
1978	38	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	6.8
1979	23	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	2.9
1980	37	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	2.2
1981	22	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1.1
1982	36	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	4.6
1983	14	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.5
1984	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	-0.9

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1965	27	6	5	4	1	0	0	75	38	56	75	6	92.0	3.72	1.424	7.34	3.51	100.9	93.5	0.8
1966	30	30	15	10	0	6	0	176	80	91	147	21	208.3	3.46	1.282	6.35	3.64	108.0	97.6	1.6
1967	9	9	3	1	0	2	1	34	16	20	23	6	49.0	2.94	1.102	4.22	4.30	134.8	108.5	0.7
1969	26	23	16	4	0	11	6	131	47	64	123	11	181.0	2.34	1.077	6.12	2.87	80.1	153.2	4.8
1970	39	39	20	10	0	17	5	263	92	100	199	21	305.0	2.71	1.190	5.87	3.01	81.9	135.5	6.4
1971	37	37	20	9	0	20	3	231	84	106	184	19	282.0	2.68	1.195	5.87	3.10	92.3	125.3	5.4
1972	36	36	21	10	0	18	3	219	63	70	184	21	274.3	2.07	1.053	6.04	2.70	87.3	149.6	7.0
1973	38	37	22	9	1	19	6	225	79	113	158	16	296.3	2.40	1.141	4.80	3.39	90.7	155.9	7.6
1974	26	26	7	12	0	5	2	176	65	69	84	12	178.7	3.27	1.371	4.23	3.71	106.9	106.0	2.2
1975	39	38	23	11	1	25	10	253	75	80	193	20	323.0	2.09	1.031	5.38	2.93	82.4	170.0	8.7
1976	40	40	22	13	0	23	6	255	88	84	159	20	315.0	2.51	1.076	4.54	3.31	100.1	131.5	6.2
1977	39	39	20	11	0	22	3	263	103	99	193	24	319.0	2.91	1.135	5.45	3.47	90.6	131.9	6.5
1978	38	38	21	12	0	19	6	246	81	97	138	19	296.0	2.46	1.159	4.20	3.45	97.3	143.9	6.8
1979	23	22	10	6	0	7	0	144	57	43	67	12	155.7	3.30	1.201	3.87	3.74	92.2	123.0	2.9
1980	34	33	16	10	0	4	0	238	99	74	109	26	224.0	3.98	1.393	4.38	4.33	109.2	99.6	2.2
1981	22	22	7	8	0	5	0	117	53	46	35	14	127.3	3.75	1.280	2.47	4.55	125.5	96.8	1.1
1982	36	32	15	5	1	8	2	195	79	63	103	22	227.0	3.13	1.137	4.08	3.93	97.2	129.0	4.6
1983	14	11	5	4	0	0	0	86	36	19	34	11	76.7	4.23	1.370	3.99	4.55	114.3	94.2	0.5
1984	5	3	0	3	0	0	0	22	18	17	4	2	17.7	9.17	2.208	2.04	6.65	170.3	42.6	-0.9

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

576

537

489

RBI

207

.1738

OBP

.1996

SLG

.2147

OPS

.4143

Pitching

G (P)

558

317th-most career G (P)

521

42nd-most career GS

268

36th-most career W

152

158th-most career L

211

121st-most career CG

SHO

16th-most career SHO

3,948

43rd-most career IP

SO (P)

2,212

65th-most career SO (P)

BB allowed

1,311

31st-most career BB allowed

ERA

2.856

128th-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.1803

122nd-lowest career WHIP

K/9

5.04

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
1972-05-28	CLE @ BAL Gameday	4	1	3	1	0	2	0	4
1969-08-18	BAL @ MIL Gameday	5	1	3	1	0	1	0	4
1965-05-16	NYY @ BAL Gameday	1	1	1	0	1	2	0	4
1966-04-13	BAL @ BOS Gameday	3	1	1	0	1	2	1	4
1970-05-27	CLE @ BAL Gameday	2	1	1	0	1	1	0	4

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1971-07-01	BAL @ CLE Gameday	8.0	7	2	2	5	13	0
1970-10-05	MIN @ BAL Gameday	9.0	7	1	1	3	12	0
1973-10-06	ATH @ BAL Gameday	9.0	5	0	0	5	12	0
1977-05-24	MIL @ BAL Gameday	9.0	7	1	1	2	12	1
1970-05-03	MIN @ BAL Gameday	9.0	5	4	2	1	11	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

Hall of Fame, 1990 (BBWAA)

4× Gold Glove3× Cy Young Award6× 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.