Mike Flanagan
Flanagan's 1979 Cy Young season stands as one of the great what-ifs in baseball history. The southpaw went 23-9 with a 3.08 ERA for Baltimore, anchoring an Orioles rotation that carried the team to the World Series. His peak ERA+ of 164 in 1991 came during his final act, when he posted a sparkling 2.38 ERA despite a misleading 2-7 record that screams bad luck and poor run support.
The Maryland native spent most of his 18-year career in an Orioles uniform, embodying the organization's blue-collar ethos. His 167 wins and 1,491 strikeouts tell the story of a durable workhorse who ate innings and kept his team competitive. While his career 3.90 ERA and 99 ERA+ mark him as essentially league-average over the long haul, Flanagan's ability to elevate his game when it mattered most — like that Cy Young campaign — separated him from the pack of solid but forgettable starters.
Career · Pitching
18 seasons| Year | Team | G | IP | W | L | ERA | ERA+ | SO | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | BAL | 2 | 9.7 | 0 | 1 | 2.79 | 133 | 7 | 1.552 |
| 1976 | BAL | 20 | 85.0 | 3 | 5 | 4.13 | 85 | 56 | 1.365 |
| 1977 | BAL | 36 | 235.0 | 15 | 10 | 3.64 | 110 | 149 | 1.298 |
| 1978 | BAL | 40 | 281.3 | 19 | 15 | 4.03 | 91 | 167 | 1.273 |
| 1979 | BAL | 39 | 265.7 | 23 | 9 | 3.08 | 130 | 190 | 1.186 |
| 1980 | BAL | 37 | 251.3 | 16 | 13 | 4.12 | 93 | 128 | 1.389 |
| 1981 | BAL | 20 | 116.0 | 9 | 6 | 4.19 | 85 | 72 | 1.250 |
| 1982 | BAL | 36 | 236.0 | 15 | 11 | 3.97 | 97 | 103 | 1.309 |
| 1983 | BAL | 20 | 125.3 | 12 | 4 | 3.30 | 117 | 50 | 1.324 |
| 1984 | BAL | 34 | 226.7 | 13 | 13 | 3.53 | 108 | 115 | 1.297 |
| 1985 | BAL | 15 | 86.0 | 4 | 5 | 5.13 | 76 | 42 | 1.500 |
| 1986 | BAL | 29 | 172.0 | 7 | 11 | 4.24 | 93 | 96 | 1.424 |
| 1987 | BAL | 23 | 144.0 | 6 | 8 | 4.06 | 105 | 93 | 1.382 |
| 1988 | TOR | 34 | 211.0 | 13 | 13 | 4.18 | 89 | 99 | 1.422 |
| 1989 | TOR | 30 | 171.7 | 8 | 10 | 3.93 | 94 | 47 | 1.357 |
| 1990 | TOR | 5 | 20.3 | 2 | 2 | 5.31 | 73 | 5 | 1.770 |
| 1991 | BAL | 64 | 98.3 | 2 | 7 | 2.38 | 164 | 55 | 1.108 |
| 1992 | BAL | 42 | 34.7 | 0 | 0 | 8.05 | 46 | 17 | 2.106 |
| Career | 526 | 2770.0 | 167 | 143 | — | — | 1491 | — | |
Matchups, projections, comps — grounded in Lahman, Retrosheet, and Statcast.