Ken Raffensberger

HandednessBats Right · Throws Left

Listed at6 ft 2 in · 185 lb

BornAugust 8, 1917 · York, PA, USA

MLB debutApril 25, 1939

Final gameJune 2, 1954

Seasons15 (1939–1954)

St. Louis Cardinals 1939; Chicago Cubs 1940–1941; Philadelphia Blue Jays 1943–1944; Philadelphia Phillies 1945–1946; Cincinnati Reds 1947; Philadelphia Phillies 1947; Cincinnati Reds 1948–1953; Cincinnati Redlegs 1954

Percentile snapshot

1953 season — qualified pitchers

8.6

44.8

8.6

37.9

SHO

24.1

200

46.6

74.1

98.3

3.4

20.7

174.0

27.6

ERA

3.93

53.4

WHIP

1.339

62.1

K/9

2.43

3.4

FIP

4.36

FIP-

100.2

43.1

ERA+

110.7

62.1

sWAR

2.4

of 59 qualified 1953 pitchers (min 155 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

108.3

67.6

sWAR

26.9

95.9

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	HR	RBI	BB	SO	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1939	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.1
1940	43	32	30	2	5	0	0	0	0	18	0	.167	.167	.167	.333	-21.3	-6.9	.154	1.6
1941	10	6	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-124.7	-100.0	.000	-0.1
1943	1	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-135.1	-100.0	.000	0.2
1944	38	96	80	1	11	0	0	3	3	38	0	.138	.169	.138	.306	-24.4	-12.6	.151	3.7
1945	5	8	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-122.9	-100.0	.000	-0.1
1946	39	71	60	5	10	3	0	1	2	23	0	.167	.194	.217	.410	-0.7	16.7	.196	1.3
1947	29	55	52	3	10	0	0	5	1	29	0	.192	.208	.192	.400	-4.3	7.3	.188	0.6
1948	40	67	62	2	7	1	0	0	2	27	0	.113	.141	.129	.270	-40.1	-25.9	.130	1.6
1949	41	105	90	7	16	4	1	3	2	31	0	.178	.204	.256	.460	10.1	21.7	.210	5.1
1950	38	89	82	7	11	2	1	9	4	21	0	.134	.174	.195	.370	-15.8	-3.2	.172	2.0
1951	42	92	82	4	10	2	0	0	4	31	0	.122	.163	.146	.309	-31.5	-16.8	.150	3.8
1952	38	88	75	5	8	1	1	1	2	32	0	.107	.130	.160	.290	-39.1	-20.1	.135	5.0
1953	26	65	57	2	8	3	1	8	0	22	1	.140	.140	.246	.386	-19.7	-2.6	.165	2.4
1954	6	2	2	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	.500	.500	.500	1.000	171.1	159.0	.454	-0.3

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1939	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	1	0	1.0	0.00	2.000	9.00	0.81	19.7	—	0.1
1940	43	10	7	9	3	3	0	120	43	29	55	10	114.7	3.38	1.299	4.32	3.73	98.9	111.8	1.6
1941	10	1	0	1	0	0	0	17	9	7	5	0	18.0	4.50	1.333	2.50	3.18	89.9	78.6	-0.1
1943	1	1	0	1	0	1	0	7	1	2	3	0	8.0	1.13	1.125	3.38	2.47	74.8	293.8	0.2
1944	37	31	13	20	0	18	3	257	88	45	136	9	258.7	3.06	1.168	4.73	2.48	69.4	116.6	3.7
1945	5	4	0	3	0	1	0	28	12	14	6	3	24.3	4.44	1.726	2.22	5.47	144.9	85.1	-0.1
1946	39	23	8	15	6	14	2	203	79	39	73	10	196.0	3.63	1.235	3.35	2.85	84.1	93.4	1.3
1947	29	22	8	11	1	10	1	182	74	37	54	15	147.7	4.51	1.483	3.29	3.93	97.7	89.2	0.6
1948	40	24	11	12	0	7	4	187	77	37	57	15	180.3	3.84	1.242	2.84	3.65	94.1	100.9	1.6
1949	41	38	18	17	0	20	5	289	107	80	103	23	284.0	3.39	1.299	3.26	3.72	90.9	120.8	5.1
1950	38	35	14	19	0	18	4	271	113	40	87	34	239.0	4.26	1.301	3.28	4.10	98.6	97.8	2.0
1951	42	33	16	17	5	14	5	232	95	38	81	30	248.7	3.44	1.086	2.93	3.83	95.3	116.8	3.8
1952	38	33	17	13	1	18	6	247	77	45	93	18	247.0	2.81	1.182	3.39	3.18	85.1	133.2	5.0
1953	26	26	7	14	0	9	1	200	76	33	47	23	174.0	3.93	1.339	2.43	4.36	100.2	110.7	2.4
1954	6	1	0	2	0	0	0	15	9	3	5	2	10.3	7.84	1.742	4.35	4.84	115.3	53.5	-0.3

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

397

779

688

RBI

280

.1410

OBP

.1664

SLG

.1817

OPS

.3481

Pitching

G (P)

396

282

412th-most career GS

119

455th-most career W

154

152nd-most career L

133

286th-most career CG

SHO

104th-most career SHO

2,152

372nd-most career IP

SO (P)

806

BB allowed

449

ERA

3.597

WHIP

1.2576

369th-lowest career WHIP

K/9

3.37

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
1950-09-09	CHC @ CIN Gameday	4	1	2	0	1	4	0	5
1950-06-04	ATL @ CIN Gameday	3	0	2	2	0	2	1	4
1953-07-21	CIN @ PIT Gameday	4	1	1	0	1	3	0	4
1949-09-07	CIN @ PIT Gameday	3	1	1	0	1	1	0	4
1952-08-20	LAD @ CIN Gameday	1	1	1	0	1	1	0	4

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR
1944-05-29	PIT @ PHI Gameday	11.0	8	3	3	2	13	1
1951-09-25	STL @ CIN Gameday	14.0	12	3	3	2	8	0
1944-07-19	PIT @ PHI Gameday	9.0	6	2	1	1	7	0
1946-08-29	PHI @ PIT Gameday	9.0	10	2	1	0	7	0
1949-08-21	CHC @ CIN Gameday	9.0	5	1	0	1	7	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.