San Francisco Giants: Top 30 players of all-time

NY/SF Giants best players all-time: No. 26-Mickey Welch

32.7 WAR

Mickey Welch was someone who also debuted with the Troy Trojans before making his way over to the New York Giants starting in 1883-1892.

With the nickname “Smiling Mickey,” he pitched in just about 430 games–winning 238 of them–in over 3,500 innings. He had a career ERA of 2.69 while closing a few games as well.

Welch was known for his strikeouts, as he still holds a record to this day. On August 28, 1884, he set the record for most consecutive strikeouts to begin a game with nine.

The Rockies’ German Marquez, Mets’ Jacob deGrom, and Astros’ Jim DeShaies all have started a game at one point in their careers with eight strikeouts but nobody has gotten to nine to begin a game.

In 1886, he won a startling 33 games (which was still second on the team behind Tim Keefe’s 44 victories).

While the Giants would win the 1889 World Series, the players and the owners weren’t in sync in terms of the players’ salaries, so Welch was a part of a group that created a new league featuring eight teams, and they called it “The Players’ League.”

Welch was eventually elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973 by the Veterans Committee.