Ken Holtzman

HandednessBats Right · Throws Left

Listed at6 ft 2 in · 175 lb

BornNovember 3, 1945 · St. Louis, MO, USA

MLB debutSeptember 4, 1965

Final gameSeptember 19, 1979

Seasons15 (1965–1979)

Chicago Cubs 1965–1971; Oakland Athletics 1972–1975; Baltimore Orioles 1976; New York Yankees 1976–1977; Chicago Cubs 1978; New York Yankees 1978; Chicago Cubs 1979

Percentile snapshot

1976 season — qualified pitchers

41.4

64.4

50.6

51.7

82.8

SHO

49.4

265

6.9

100

39.1

6.9

18.4

246.7

ERA

3.65

20.7

WHIP

1.358

16.1

K/9

2.41

FIP

3.89

FIP-

114.4

ERA+

93.3

14.9

sWAR

1.7

20.7

of 88 qualified 1976 pitchers (min 162 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

104.5

55.3

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	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1965	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.1
1966	34	80	73	2	9	1	0	0	2	1	25	.123	.135	.137	.272	-40.3	-24.6	.126	1.6
1967	12	41	35	4	7	1	0	0	2	0	11	.200	.200	.229	.429	8.0	20.1	.198	2.2
1968	35	82	80	4	10	1	0	0	5	1	26	.125	.136	.138	.273	-43.1	-19.7	.131	1.3
1969	39	107	100	5	15	1	1	1	7	2	32	.150	.167	.210	.377	-17.3	0.1	.175	3.8
1970	40	118	105	6	21	5	0	0	6	5	22	.200	.236	.248	.484	17.6	24.5	.228	6.5
1971	30	75	69	4	9	2	0	1	5	3	15	.130	.164	.203	.367	-20.7	-1.7	.173	0.3
1972	40	102	90	6	16	4	0	0	6	1	25	.178	.187	.222	.409	11.3	25.5	.192	4.1
1973	41	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	—	1.000	—	—	399.1	—	.751	5.2
1974	39	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	3.5
1975	39	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-121.1	-100.0	.000	4.2
1976	34	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	1.7
1977	18	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	-0.7
1978	28	12	10	2	2	1	0	0	0	1	5	.200	.273	.300	.573	51.2	52.8	.275	-0.7
1979	24	45	43	2	10	3	0	0	1	2	9	.233	.267	.302	.569	44.4	49.2	.265	0.7

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1965	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	3	3	1	4.0	2.25	1.250	6.75	6.64	181.0	162.9	0.1
1966	34	33	11	16	0	9	0	194	93	68	171	27	220.7	3.79	1.187	6.97	3.69	100.2	97.1	1.6
1967	12	12	9	0	0	3	0	76	26	44	62	11	92.7	2.53	1.295	6.02	4.35	123.3	139.8	2.2
1968	34	32	11	14	1	6	3	201	80	76	151	17	215.0	3.35	1.288	6.32	3.31	105.2	94.0	1.3
1969	39	39	17	13	0	12	6	248	104	93	176	18	261.3	3.58	1.305	6.06	3.33	83.8	110.9	3.8
1970	39	38	17	11	0	15	1	271	108	94	202	30	287.7	3.38	1.269	6.32	3.81	85.9	131.3	6.5
1971	30	29	9	15	0	9	3	213	97	64	143	18	195.0	4.48	1.421	6.60	3.29	85.1	86.4	0.3
1972	39	37	19	11	0	16	4	232	74	52	134	23	265.3	2.51	1.070	4.55	3.02	104.5	115.1	4.1
1973	40	40	21	13	0	16	4	275	98	66	157	22	297.3	2.97	1.147	4.75	3.19	88.9	121.0	5.2
1974	39	38	19	17	0	9	3	273	87	51	117	14	255.3	3.07	1.269	4.12	3.00	89.0	110.0	3.5
1975	39	38	18	14	0	13	2	217	93	108	122	16	266.3	3.14	1.220	4.12	3.72	101.4	116.6	4.2
1976	34	34	14	11	0	16	3	265	100	70	66	18	246.7	3.65	1.358	2.41	3.89	114.4	93.3	1.7
1977	18	11	2	3	0	0	0	105	46	24	14	7	71.7	5.78	1.800	1.76	4.67	117.2	69.0	-0.7
1978	28	9	1	3	2	0	0	82	44	44	39	12	70.7	5.60	1.783	4.97	5.62	144.8	69.2	-0.7
1979	23	20	6	9	0	3	2	133	60	53	44	15	117.7	4.59	1.581	3.37	5.11	125.6	88.5	0.7

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

456

665

607

RBI

170

.1631

OBP

.1856

SLG

.2076

OPS

.3932

Pitching

G (P)

451

410

125th-most career GS

174

181st-most career W

150

167th-most career L

127

304th-most career CG

SHO

104th-most career SHO

2,867

160th-most career IP

SO (P)

1,601

199th-most career SO (P)

BB allowed

910

154th-most career BB allowed

ERA

3.487

435th-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.2894

K/9

5.03

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
1969-08-31	CHC @ ATL Gameday	3	1	2	0	1	3	5
1972-06-16	CLE @ ATH Gameday	4	0	3	1	0	1	4
1971-06-12	CIN @ CHC Gameday	3	1	1	0	1	1	4
1974-10-16	LAD @ ATH Gameday	3	1	1	0	1	1	4
1970-05-08	CIN @ CHC Gameday	3	1	3	0	0	1	3

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1971-06-08	PIT @ CHC Gameday	12.0	9	0	0	0	12	0
1969-06-18	CHC @ PIT Gameday	9.0	8	2	2	2	12	1
1973-07-03	LAA @ ATH Gameday	9.0	5	0	0	1	12	0
1971-05-03	CHC @ NYM Gameday	10.2	9	3	3	5	11	0
1971-05-12	CHC @ PHI Gameday	9.0	7	4	4	3	11	2

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.