The 100 Greatest Angels - #81, Bob Lee

#81 - Bob Lee, Reliever

Career Stats

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 last season to Francisco Rodriguez (who now has 59 Saves to Lee's 58 as an Angel). 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 and LaRoche 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.