Ah, the stuff that nightmares are made from…

Here’s a fun little list for today, via Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index Pitching Season Finder.  It’s the 25 worst “ERA+” postings by Yankees pitchers in the “Steinbrenner Era” (meaning 1973 to date) where the pitcher made at least 8 starts in season.

  Cnt Player            ERA+  GS Year Age Tm
+----+-----------------+----+---+----+---+---+
    1 Ian Kennedy         53   9 2008  23 NYY
    2 Ed Figueroa         56   9 1980  31 NYY
    3 Jeff Johnson        59   8 1992  25 NYY
    4 Shane Rawley        61  10 1984  28 NYY
    5 Hideki Irabu        63   9 1997  28 NYY
    6 Tim Leary           64  18 1991  32 NYY
    7 Shawn Chacon        65  11 2006  28 NYY
    8 Kevin Brown         65  13 2005  40 NYY
    9 Philip Hughes       65   8 2008  22 NYY
   10 Doyle Alexander     65  11 1982  31 NYY
   11 Wade Taylor         66  22 1991  25 NYY
   12 Tommy John          66  10 1989  46 NYY
   13 Steve Trout         67   9 1987  29 NYY
   14 Ken Holtzman        68  11 1977  31 NYY
   15 Dave LaPoint        69  20 1989  29 NYY
   16 Sterling Hitchcoc   69   9 2001  30 NYY
   17 Richard Dotson      69   9 1989  30 NYY
   18 Jaret Wright        70  13 2005  29 NYY
   19 Jeff Johnson        70  23 1991  24 NYY
   20 David Cone          70  29 2000  37 NYY
   21 Chuck Cary          70   9 1991  31 NYY
   22 Marty Bystrom       71   8 1985  26 NYY
   23 Tim Leary           71  15 1992  33 NYY
   24 Terry Mulholland    71  19 1994  31 NYY
   25 Kei Igawa           72  12 2007  27 NYY

Man, 1991 was an ugly year.  And, 24% of the “top” 25 have come since 2005.  No shock there, huh?