Top 100 Angels: Bob LEE #48

by Rev Halofan on Jan 6, 2009 8:19 PM PST in 100 Top Angels

With 58 Saves as an Angel, the franchise's very first effective closer is still in the franchise Top 6 in Saves despite only 3 seasons with the team, and only gave up 5th place at the end of the 2005 season to Francisco Rodriguez. What is most impressive about Bob Lee's tenure under the Halo is he compiled his impressive totals with an Angel team that was dead last in A.L. offense for two of those seasons and 6th of 10 teams in 1966. Never saw him play, but simple analysis puts him ahead of Aase, Minton, Hasegawa, Donnelly, LaRoche and Moore on our Countdown.

Time for Rob McMillin of the 6 - 4 - 2 Baseball Blog to fill us in on Mr. Lee...

Bob "Moose" Lee was the ace of the Angels' bullpen back in the early days of the franchise, from 1964 until he was traded to the Dodgers in 1966. To give you an idea of how dominant he was, two similar pitchers appearing on his Baseball Reference include Brad Lidge and Scot Shields. He tried his hand at starting in his debut year, going 2-1 in seven starts, including a 10-inning, 8-strikeout performance against the Indians on April 25, 1964. It was a bad year for the Angels: the Chavez Ravine crowd was a mere 2,237 that day.

Owning a 27.2 inning consecutive scoreless streak he accumulated from July 15, 1964 through August 9, his 1.54 ERA that year was the second-lowest ever for a rookie at the time. After his move to the Dodgers, he faded badly, and was out of baseball two years later.

Career Stats

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Go gettem next year, what have we got to lose--Frankie?

by AnaheimHalos61 on Jan 7, 2009 10:56 AM PST reply actions

Bill Rigney was a monster at creating bullpens

Look at the entire ‘60s — he’d come up with a new great closer almost every year, and just about every guy back there would have a good-to-great ERA. He was way, way ahead of his time.

Compare that to the Ryan-era bullpens, and it’s just astonishing. Not only did Nolan get no run support, and play for crappy teams in general, and average 300 innings per year, but on the few occasions he handed the game off to the bullpen he pretty much knew they were going to suck.

Anyway, nice to see a forgotten hero get his due.

by mattwelch on Jan 7, 2009 3:26 PM PST reply actions

GREAT POST ANAHEIMHALOS61

of the ‘65 Topps card. I’m trying to remember, the ‘66 Topps, No cap, right?
This guy punched some numbers in this THEN remote outpost. If this dude posted his ’64-’65 stats in this day and age, sports media reporters and fantasy leaguers would expunge bodily fluids over this guy.

by bojax22 on Jan 7, 2009 7:28 PM PST reply actions