Bob from Chilawack Tops Readers for “Most Win” Predictions
Gerald Muizelaar was the overwhelming readers’ choice as the pitcher with the Most Wins in the ISC World Tournament from 2002-2008 — which proved to be the correct answer in the latest “ISC Stat Triva Poll”. The tall lanky Canadian righthander garnered 138 of the 410 votes cast – one out of every three votes, outdistancing his nearest competition by more than 85 votes.
Astute Fastpitchwest and Al’s Fastball readers correctly pegged the top three – and in the correct order of finish, no less, Muizelaar, Gareau and Kirkpatrick. (Maybe I should start posting the list of horses running at nearby Los Alamitos race course in advance :-))
Paul Koert appears to be the most underrated pitcher, racking up wins under the radar. Koert garnered 13 of the 410 votes, (only 3%), but is tied for third with Andrew Kirkpatrick, with a whopping 20 wins. The foursome of Muizelaar, Gareau, Kirkpatrick and Koert are the only members of the “20-win” club. Koert’s stature on this list makes his addition to Team USA’s squad for the ISF Worlds this summer look to be a good one.
Voters also hit the mark by correctly tabbing Todd Martin for 4th place, and Frank Cox for 6th, who have 18 and 15 wins respectively. Ironically, it was Martin helping Cox notch that 15th win and inch closer to his total of 18 in last summer’s ISC World Tournament championship game. Martin started the game, gave way to Cox in relief, with Kitchener rallying late in the game for the come-from-behind win. An injury to Cox forced Martin to re-enter the game, and pick up a save, protecting Cox’s win.
Robbie O’Brien and Grant Patterson were also underrated, garnering only 2% and 1%, with 8 and 5 votes, respectively, but the duo are tied for seventh on the actual win list, with 14 wins.
One notable name not on the list – or in the poll — was Darren Zack. Darren, of course, was racking up wins by the handful, but in a different time period – late 1980’s and throughout the 1990’s. The poll only looks at the past seven years, when Darren was well into his 40’s.
Two other pitchers – both to be inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer — rank lower on this list than might be expected, but again, only because they were notching more of their wins a decade before the slice of time viewed in this stat database. (2002-2008) The two ? Mike Piechnik and Michael White. Even so, the two still notched double figure win totals, just in the past eight years.
Take a peek at the ISC Media Guide when it comes out next month, and you’ll see that the trio — Darren Zack, Michael White and Mike Piechnik rank among the all time leaders in wins.
The list of top winners is dominated by Canadian pitchers. Kirkpatrick the top Aussie, in third place with 20 wins, while Lucas Mata the top Argentine is fifth with 17. Jeremy Manley is the top New Zealander, ninth place with 12 wins. No Yanks to be found.
Top 3 (4) – The “20 Win Club”
Gerald Muizelaar, 27
Korrey Garreau, 24
Andrew Kirkpatrick, 20
Paul Koert, 20
Here are the actual win totals for 2002-2008, as shown in a comprehensive ISC statistical data provided by a Fastpitchwest reader, Anon E. Moose. The first poll (“Most Hits”) drew over 300 votes, while this one (“Most Wins”) pulled in over 400 votes.
Actual Win Totals for ISC Pitchers – 2002-2008
(voter’s predicted finish shown in parentheses)
1. Muizelaar Gerald, 27 (1)
2 Gareau Korrey, 24 (2)
3. Kirkpatrick Andrew, 20 (3)
3. Koert Paul, 20 (9)
4. Martin Todd, 18 (4)
5. Mata Lucas, 17 (7)
6. Cox Frank, 15 (6)
7. Patterson Grant, 14 (11)
7. O’Brien Robbie, 14 (10)
8. Underhill Nick, 13 (13)
9. Manley Jeremy, 12 (12)
9. McKenzie Colin, 12 (12)
9. Urquhart Brian, 12 (14)
9. Simpson Jamie, 12 (12)
9. White Michael, 12 (5)
10. Langley Steve, 11 (14)
10. Gollan Karl, 11 (12)
11. Piechnik Mike, 10 (8)
The voter prediction tallies are show below:
(Again, these are the voter’s predictions, not the actual win totals)
Selection Votes
Gerald Muizelaar 34% 138
Korrey Gareau 13% 53
Andrew Kirkpatrick 13% 52
Todd Martin 9% 35
Michael White 6% 25
Frank Cox 5% 22
Lucas Mata 5% 21
Mike Piechnik 4% 17
Paul Koert 3% 13
Robbie O’Brien 2% 8
Grant Patterson 1% 5
Karl Gollan 1% 4
Colin Mc Kenzie 1% 4
Jeremy Manley 1% 4
Jamie Simpson 1% 4
Nick Underhill 1% 3
Brian Urquhart 1% 1
Steve Langley 1% 1410 votes total
This poll had a number of astute comments posted before the actual results were announced. One reader (“Ty”) had Muizellar and Gareau picked as the top two, noting:
Gareau was more dominant in the last 4 years, but Muizy was clearly more dominant in the first 4
Another noted the point mentioned above about the database skewing a bit against players of an earlier era. From “DiDirt”:
white didnt pitch in 07 or 08 and probably pitched little in 06 at the WT, so his stats will be pretty skewed go from 98-05 and whitey would be right up there; of course Zack would be too and a few others
Commenter “Katman” was not one of those overlooking Paul Koert’s achievments:
paul koert is for sure top 10
Another reader posted a snarky comment about Jamie Simpson, suggesting that he didn’t belong on the list. Twelve (12) ISC World Tournament wins say otherwise. Scoreboard, baby. He’s in pretty select company over the past 7 years.
Bob from Chilawack was one of the few brave enough to post his Top 10 picks ahead of time. He wasn’t far off on any, and one of the few to pick Koert among the leaders. His picks are shown below, with the actual result in parentheses:
1. Muizy (1)
2. Gareau (2)
3. Martin (4)
4. Kirkpatrick (3)
5. Koert (3)
6. Cox (6)
7. Manley (9)
8. Underhill (8)
9. Patterson (7)
10. White (10)
Another commenter thought Bob’s predictions were off the mark:
That’s CHILLIWACK 🙂
— but Bob proved to be the ranking Nostradamus among Fastpitchwest readers.