This Former Twins Pitcher Holds A Few Dubious Major League Records

[Al from SoDak]

While right-handed pitcher Terry Felton did not enjoy a long, prosperous Major League Baseball career, it appears he had a fulfilling career outside of the game.

In my judgment, baseball tracks more statistics cares more about numbers and reveres the game’s records more than any other sport. Baseball keeps track of everything: Most home runs, wins, hits, strikeouts, steals (RIP Rickey Henderson), longest-hitting streaks etc., etc. Did you know former Twin Terry Felton holds a couple of obscure records no one would want? Let’s look closer at Terry Felton and his career.

Terry Lane Felton was born October 29, 1957, in Texarkana, Arkansas. He graduated from Baker High School 300 miles southeast, in Louisiana, just north of Baton Rouge. The Twins drafted him out of high school in the second round of the 1976 MLB June Amateur Draft.

Immediately after being drafted, Felton was assigned to Elizabethton in the Rookie League. He progressed through Double A and Triple A from 1977-79. He had a decent ERA each season but had more walks and fewer strikeouts than you would like to see in a top prospect. However, in that era of Twins baseball, the big-league club was not great, to say the least, and had little pitching depth. Because of this, maybe one could say Felton was rushed to the big leagues. He debuted on September 18, 1979, when he was only 21. He followed that with short stints with the Twins in 1980 and 1981 but mainly pitched at Triple A. He was given a longer look with the Twins on the dreaded 1982 team, which finished with 102 losses.

From 1979-1981, the six-foot-one, 180-pound Felton pitched only 21 major league innings where he got smacked around to the tune of an 8.57 ERA. He was charged with three losses. In 1982, he was given a more extensive look. Whether it was all on Felton’s performance or the lack of help from the offense (2.29 runs scored in his six starts), 1982 was a rough year for Terry and the Twins. Felton pitched more innings as a reliever than a starter, where he was a little better. He had a better strikeout-to-walk ratio, lower batting average allowed, and lower OPS allowed. Regardless, Felton lost games in both roles – four as a starter and nine as a reliever. He pitched all season in the major leagues. He finished with a record of 0-13. 

In 1983, he returned to Triple A and played the 1984 season in the Dodgers organization. He would never pitch again in Major League Baseball and be out of organized baseball entirely by 1985 when he was 27.

Now, we get to the obscure records. If you were paying attention to the above, Terry had 16 consecutive losses to start his career. That’s a record. He also never had a win, finishing his career with more losses than any other pitcher who had zero wins. He also finished with the most innings pitched (138 1/3) without a win. His career high point might have been his first appearance in 1979 when he pitched two perfect innings in a 10-1 loss to Milwaukee. He also had a good first start in 1980 when he allowed three runs in seven innings. The Twins won 5-3 but scored all their runs after Felton was removed, so reliever Doug Corbett got the win. 

Felton’s career record was zero wins and 16 losses. He finished with an ERA of 5.53, ERA+ of 78, and 108 strikeouts in 138 1/3 innings. He had no wins, but, hey, he racked up three saves! Some of his numbers are not horrendous (7.0 strikeouts per nine innings pitched was not bad for his era, and his batting average against .240 was not too shabby). Still, it’s clear he issued way too many walks (5.7 per nine innings pitched) and had a propensity to serve up home runs (1.4 per nine innings pitched) – a bad combination.

I found a few sources to suggest Felton was a bit unlucky. In Twenty-Five Seasons: The First Quarter Century of the Minnesota Twins by Dave Mona and Dave Jarzyne, the authors said of Felton, “He had a live arm and a fierce competitive streak, but he had no luck.” Kent Hrbek stated in Kent Hrbek’s Tales from the Minnesota Twins Dugout, “I just couldn’t figure that one [Felton] out because he had some really nasty stuff…the guy had one of the best breaking balls I’d seen and a nasty fastball …I had the feeling that the guy could throw a no-hitter every time he went to the mound.” After reviewing his numbers, I think Felton was not good, but his won-loss record resulted from pitching for a lousy team and having a bit of bad luck. He probably should have achieved a win somewhere along the way. But that’s baseball.

After his playing career, he returned to Louisiana and became a detective, then a captain in the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office. The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office website reports Felton “Has served the Sheriff’s Office since 1985. He served in various divisions, including Corrections, Narcotics, Traffic, and Detectives. He worked through the ranks and was promoted to Night Supervisor Captain in 2007. He has also been involved on the SWAT Team as a sniper for several years and has been to numerous schools involving SWAT, Homicide, and Crime Scene.” He is still active as a Captain in the Sheriff’s Office today. His baseball career didn’t pan out, but he found his calling and served his community well.

Terry Felton had a terrible MLB career. Was he the worst pitcher in Twins history, or just the victim of bad luck? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

If you like looking back at the Twins past, check out my previous articles at Twins Daily History.

Sources include Baseball Reference, Wikipedia, Twenty-Five Seasons: The First Quarter Century of the Minnesota Twins, and Kent Hrbek’s Tales from the Minnesota Twins Dugout.

View full article

[AceWrigley]

Your classic hard-luck pitcher.

[Parfigliano]

19 minutes ago, AceWrigley said:

Your classic hard-luck pitcher.

More like no luck other than bad luck pitcher.  He does have a record that's probably going to be tough to top.

[HerbieFan]

Terry Felton was not a bad pitcher.  I wouldn't say he was good...as mentioned, too many walks and was clearly rushed to the majors.  But definitely more hard-luck than anything...those were some dark days in Twins history.

[Blyleven2011]

I was always rooting for him to get a win  but it just never happened  ...

He made it to the show so he was alot better than those that never had that chance , so he can be proud of being a major league pitcher ...

[twinstalker]

I mean, no offense to anyone including Terry, he was a really bad pitcher.  I mean, you can't get much worse.  We make fun of Terry's plight to this day.  Well, not Terry, but our friend who insisted Felton was really a good pitcher.  He would repeat the hype that was given to the TV and radio announcers, even though it was extremely obvious he couldn't navigate his way through a start.

The optimism would come about when he'd get in the game with the Twins behind and hold the other team scoreless the rest of the way.  It was a considerably different dynamic than starting, especially back then.

[TFelton]

My Favorite Twin all time.

[Bodie]

16 hours ago, HerbieFan said:

Terry Felton was not a bad pitcher.  I wouldn't say he was good...as mentioned, too many walks and was clearly rushed to the majors.  But definitely more hard-luck than anything...those were some dark days in Twins history.

I remember him.  He was worse than his numbers.  I'll take Hrbek's word on his stuff, but even a decent man - and his life shows him to be so - can be a bad ball player. 

 

When his name was listed under "today's probable starters" you could safely listen to anything else, with little worry of missing anything good.

 

Thrower not a pitcher... a good community oriented man, but bad professional baseball player.  He might have been unlucky to a degree, but that was waaaaaay down the list of his baseball shortcomings.