He's not listed on the official Mizzou Baseball roster, but he does have a Facebook account (although the helmet is the wrong color), and he apparently has a brother, Charlie.
And right now he is the MU pitcher with the most wins.
The stats on the 7 games pitched so far by Johnny Wholestaff are impressive. (Andrew Dewitt at Stripes and Seams cast aspersion on my numbers, so I've gone back and checked them. Turns out some of my stats were indeed wrong - and so were his. )
My criteria for counting a game as Johnny Wholestaff's is that there were at least 8 pitchers. They should also be games where the intent seems to have been to staff the game, not a game (like the March 7th debacle against Western Illinois) when Kelly Fick got the start but gave up 7 runs in 1-2/3 innings, then was followed by 7 relievers. It's obvious from the box score, though, that new pitchers were brought in situationally, not intentionally - that is, they were brought in when the previous pitcher was faltering, or for basic lefty-righty strategy.
Compiled, Johnny Wholestaff's record is as follows, by my calculation: 6-1, 2.18 ERA, 62 IP, 48 H, 18 R, 15 ER, 16 BB, 41 SO
Johnny's achievements to date:
February 24th vs. Arizona State: (L, 3-1) 8 innings pitched, 5 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned runs, 2 BB, 6 SO. Most pitches thrown by one pitcher: 22, by Emens, who was also the official game loser. Andrew Mueller got the start. This was Johnny Wholestaff's only loss to date.
March 4th vs. Western Illinois: (W, 8-0) 9 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 SO. High pitch count: 20, by Brian Carr, who closed out the game. Official win: Kelly Fick
March 10 vs. Western Illinois: (W, 18-4) 9 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 SO. High pitch count: 17, Buehler. Official Win: Clark
March 18 vs. SIU-Edwardsville: (W, 4-1) 9 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 SO. 11 pitchers in this game. High pitch count: 19, Fick and Hicks. Official win: Hicks
March 21 vs. Texas A&M: (W, 6-2) 9 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 8 SO. High pitch count: 27, McCormick. Official winr: Berger.
March 25 vs. UIC: (W, 13-10) 9 IP, 10 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 4 BB, 3 SO. High pitch count: 29, Folgia. Official win: Clark
March 30 vs. Oklahoma State: (W, 1-0) 9 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO. High pitch count: 17, Emens. Official win: None, according to mutigers.com; Clubb, according to okstate.com
■ The NCAA Record Book lists the most relief appearances in a game as 12, by Butler in a game against Ind-Southeast on May 5, 1998. I'm guessing that means there were 13 total pitchers in the game.
■ The turning point for Johnny Wholestaff came in mid-March as the first home Big 12 series approached. Matt Nestor of the Columbia Tribune talked to Tim Jamieson:
■ OSU Cowboys' coach Frank Anderson seemed a little puzzled by the approach - but then, so did his lineup. These quotes are from OColly.com after Johnny Shut out the Pokes:
What makes the Tigers' approach somewhat unique is the intentional plan of 1-pitcher/1-inning. I couldn't find any other reference on the web to a coach taking this intentional approach, either in college baseball or professional.
Usually, when coaches or managers use the term Johnny Wholestaff, it's not quite that radical. They're normally just referring to being willing to use as many relievers as needed, but only if whatever pitcher is currently on the mound is unable to effectively continue. Take, for example, this quote from NewYork.Yankees.mlb.com on April 30, 2007:
The record for a 9-inning game is 10 pitchers, by Baltimore on 9/12/2004.
■ Baseball America has taken note of the Tigers' success with the "committee approach"
■ Apparently there is another pitcher by the name Johnny Wholestaff - perhaps a cousin. According to this run-on story in the LATimes:
And right now he is the MU pitcher with the most wins.
The stats on the 7 games pitched so far by Johnny Wholestaff are impressive. (Andrew Dewitt at Stripes and Seams cast aspersion on my numbers, so I've gone back and checked them. Turns out some of my stats were indeed wrong - and so were his. )
My criteria for counting a game as Johnny Wholestaff's is that there were at least 8 pitchers. They should also be games where the intent seems to have been to staff the game, not a game (like the March 7th debacle against Western Illinois) when Kelly Fick got the start but gave up 7 runs in 1-2/3 innings, then was followed by 7 relievers. It's obvious from the box score, though, that new pitchers were brought in situationally, not intentionally - that is, they were brought in when the previous pitcher was faltering, or for basic lefty-righty strategy.
Compiled, Johnny Wholestaff's record is as follows, by my calculation: 6-1, 2.18 ERA, 62 IP, 48 H, 18 R, 15 ER, 16 BB, 41 SO
Johnny's achievements to date:
February 24th vs. Arizona State: (L, 3-1) 8 innings pitched, 5 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned runs, 2 BB, 6 SO. Most pitches thrown by one pitcher: 22, by Emens, who was also the official game loser. Andrew Mueller got the start. This was Johnny Wholestaff's only loss to date.
March 4th vs. Western Illinois: (W, 8-0) 9 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 SO. High pitch count: 20, by Brian Carr, who closed out the game. Official win: Kelly Fick
March 10 vs. Western Illinois: (W, 18-4) 9 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 SO. High pitch count: 17, Buehler. Official Win: Clark
March 18 vs. SIU-Edwardsville: (W, 4-1) 9 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 SO. 11 pitchers in this game. High pitch count: 19, Fick and Hicks. Official win: Hicks
March 21 vs. Texas A&M: (W, 6-2) 9 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 8 SO. High pitch count: 27, McCormick. Official winr: Berger.
March 25 vs. UIC: (W, 13-10) 9 IP, 10 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 4 BB, 3 SO. High pitch count: 29, Folgia. Official win: Clark
March 30 vs. Oklahoma State: (W, 1-0) 9 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO. High pitch count: 17, Emens. Official win: None, according to mutigers.com; Clubb, according to okstate.com
■ The NCAA Record Book lists the most relief appearances in a game as 12, by Butler in a game against Ind-Southeast on May 5, 1998. I'm guessing that means there were 13 total pitchers in the game.
■ The turning point for Johnny Wholestaff came in mid-March as the first home Big 12 series approached. Matt Nestor of the Columbia Tribune talked to Tim Jamieson:
So, as the Tigers prepare to host Texas A&M for a three-game set beginning tomorrow, the staff effort — combined with the up-and-down seasons from projected starters Ian Berger and Fick — has given Jamieson reason to think. Kyle Gibson will start tomorrow night, and Nick Tepesch will get the ball for Sunday’s finale. As of last night, no decision had been made for Saturday’s game.■ Another quote from Tim Jamieson in the Omaha World:
“It will either be Berger or Johnny Wholestaff,” Jamieson said. “But we don’t know yet. “The strength of this pitching staff is you’ve got two really good guys at the top of the rotation, and you’ve got a bunch of guys that can throw strikes. It’s tough to adjust to a different pitcher every time up.”
The downside to the strategy would include a lack of available pitchers should the game go to extra innings. The Tigers are also on the verge of a stretch that includes two midweek games in three of four weeks. They’re not likely to try to staff both games, so a fourth and a fifth starter will need to emerge.
"From my perspective," Jamieson said, "there's no way to prepare for it."
■ OSU Cowboys' coach Frank Anderson seemed a little puzzled by the approach - but then, so did his lineup. These quotes are from OColly.com after Johnny Shut out the Pokes:
OSU coach Frank Anderson said it was a strategy he hadn’t seen in a long time, but the Tigers (13-14, 4-5 Big 12) used it efficiently in shutting down the potent Cowboy offense, which surrendered its first home shutout defeat since a April 29, 2007, game against Texas.And one of the Cowboy hitters expressed his opinion:
Anderson said the wind didn’t make the Cowboys’ adjustments any easier.
“It was kind of a crosswind,” Anderson said. “If you understand pitching, and you’re not afraid when you come into this park when the wind is like that, you can make the ball move all over the place. It’s a unique game. (Missouri) doesn’t have confidence in one guy; they feel like they can’t move them over more than one or two innings, they’re gonna get hit.
“They threw nine different guys; I haven’t seen that done since I coached in junior college, but I think they are 6-1 this year when they do that, and they don’t feel comfortable with one guy out there in their third game, and so it’s pretty effective.”
Anderson said although the longest a Tiger pitcher stayed in the game was 1 1/3 innings, he was surprised with the proficiency of the MU rotation.
“You would think in that situation when you throw nine guys, you would think they would go out and walk a guy, two guys or something like that, and they didn’t,” he said. “They walked one guy in the whole game and they didn’t really give us a chance to get anything going, and that’s to their credit.”
One of the Cowboys trying to make adjustments to counter the Missouri attack was third baseman Tyrone Hambly, who registered two of the Cowboys’ six hits on the afternoon.■ Johnny Wholestaff was not, of course, the invention of Tim Jamieson or pitching coach Tony Vitello. Both the idea and the nickname have been around baseball for a while.
Hambly said he saw a drastic style change from pitcher to pitcher.
“Some pitches have similar action and stuff, but everybody’s got their own little run or little sinkers and they throw their own pitches,” Hambly said. “But going from the two quality arms they had throwing yesterday to them throwing lefties, them throwing righties coming from every side, I mean, you don’t see that every day. It’s tough to change.
What makes the Tigers' approach somewhat unique is the intentional plan of 1-pitcher/1-inning. I couldn't find any other reference on the web to a coach taking this intentional approach, either in college baseball or professional.
Usually, when coaches or managers use the term Johnny Wholestaff, it's not quite that radical. They're normally just referring to being willing to use as many relievers as needed, but only if whatever pitcher is currently on the mound is unable to effectively continue. Take, for example, this quote from NewYork.Yankees.mlb.com on April 30, 2007:
Unfortunately for the Yankees, "Johnny Wholestaff" has been an ever-present option. With starters providing just five quality starts in April, a heavier workload than anticipated was delivered to the relievers. The bullpen logged an American League-leading 97 relief innings heading into May.■ Baseball-reference.com has a chart of Most Pitchers in a Game for the major leagues, most of which are extra inning games. The record is 11, by Seattle on 9/25/92. It won't surprise Tiger fans that those 11 pitchers gave up only 3 runs in 16 innings, for the win.
The Yankees used five relievers behind starter Chien-Ming Wang's six-inning effort on Sunday against Boston, the 10th consecutive game in which New York has used five or more arms out of the bullpen. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that is the longest such streak in the past 50 years, surpassing a nine-game string by the Devil Rays last season.
The record for a 9-inning game is 10 pitchers, by Baltimore on 9/12/2004.
■ Baseball America has taken note of the Tigers' success with the "committee approach"
■ Apparently there is another pitcher by the name Johnny Wholestaff - perhaps a cousin. According to this run-on story in the LATimes:The Angels are warming up pitcher Johnny Wholestaff in the bullpen. Angels GM Bill Stoneman heard that in a Game 7 you had to use a pitcher with that name.
Wholestaff pitched in the independent Northern League and had an ERA of 8.75 and had given up 145 hits in 101 innings pitched
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