All-Time Indians: Dave Burba

One of few players to complete the Ohio circuit, Dave Burba was born in Dayton, went to High School in Springfield, college at Ohio State and played for both the Indians and Reds. He didn’t start his professional career in Ohio, however, as he was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the second round in 1987.

It took just three seasons for Burba to make his Major League debut and after a solid year in relief in 1991, he was traded to the San Francisco Giants prior to the 1992 season in part of a deal that brought Kevin Mitchell and Mike Remlinger to Seattle. He stuck around for a few seasons before being traded again to the Reds in an eight man deal that included Deion Sanders. After three solid seasons in Cincinnati where he transitioned into a full time starter, Burba was traded again, this time to Cleveland for first base prospect Sean Casey. Casey would go on to become a three time All-Star, but wouldn’t have seen starting time for the Indians until after Jim Thome left in 2002.

Burba went on to have an interesting career of his own for Cleveland. Through 1997, he was a very average pitcher with a 4.26 ERA in 278 appearances, 87 starts and 746.1 innings. His K/9 of 7.4 was right in line with his time with a reasonable walk rate of 4.2 per nine.

As a 31 year old joining the already successful Indians in 1998, little was expected of Burba, but he did as good a job as could be expected by filling in the rotation. After the Indians tremendous 1997 season where they came just one game shy of a World Series win, the rotation was largely set with Bartolo Colon, Jaret Wright and Charles Nagy, Orel Hershiser and Chad Ogea needed to be replaced and they were by Burba and Doc Gooden. While Colon and Gooden had tremendous seasons, Wright and Nagy fell below expectations and Burba helped make up for that loss. In 31 starts (one relief appearances), he posted a 4.11 ERA and 132 strike outs in 203.2 innings. Consistent down the line, he was third in the rotation in innings, strike outs and average allowed, but came in first in wins with 15.

While wins aren’t a good judge of how well a pitcher has thrown (or how well he will in the future), they are worth a slight value in showing that a pitcher was “good enough” on any particular day. Burba’s record of 49-45 prior to joining the Indians compared to his record of 57-35 after show how much easier it is to be “good enough” when you have one of the best offenses ever behind you.

That offense lead the Indians to the play-offs in 1998 and Burba pitched against Boston in the ALDS and New York in the ALCS, allowing five runs in 11.1 innings. He was used exclusively as a reliever in the postseason and earned a 2-0 record although the Indians lost the second series against the Yankees.

The next season featured the greatest offense in Indians history and Burba again took advantage, winning 15 games to nine losses. Unfortunately, the rest of the rotation was not as good as the year before as Burba outplayed Gooden, Nagy and Wright as the second best Indians starter behind Colon. He finished with just a 4.25 ERA, but did hold the opposition to a .254 average through a team high 220 innings.

The Indians appeared in the postseason again this year as their final time in a run of five straight AL Central championships and Burba was left in the rotation for this one. He pitched four scoreless innings in game four before being replaced by Wright, who immediately allowed two runs to give up the lead. This ultimately lead to a 9-3 loss and 3-2 loss in the series after winning the first two games. One of many what ifs in Indians history, if the Indians had left Burba in a few innings longer, it is possible they would have won that game and thus the series, possibly leading to their third World Series appearance in five years.

Continuing with his incredible stability, Burba threw another 191+ innings with an ERA just of 4.47 and a career best 180 strike outs. As with the other years, he had another impressive win/loss record given his peripheral stats, leading the team with 16 wins and just six losses.

At 34 years old, this run of decency ended in 2001. Since becoming a starter with the Reds, he had made at least 27 starts and posted an ERA under 5.00 every season from 1996 through 2000. In 2001, he was still in the rotation and did make 27 starts, but finished with a 6.23 ERA. He continued with his surprising win/loss records as he went 10-10 despite the other poor numbers. One reason for this was that on a game by game basis he wasn’t his average, but a combination of great and terrible. In 9 starts in 2001 he pitched at least six innings and allowed two or fewer earned runs and in eight appearances he allowed at least six runs in less than four. Even with one of the best offenses ever it’s tough to regularly win with performances like the latter.

Against the Mariners in the play-offs that year, Burba pitched just a single inning, striking out one of three batters faced. He would make just three more starts and nine relief appearances for the Indians in the rest of his career. After the 2001 season, Burba became a free agent and signed with the Texas Rangers for $2M, but was released in July after 111 innings and a 5.42 ERA that made it look like his career was over. The Indians grabbed him up again after his release and he pitched another 34 innings with another 4.50 ERA. At the end of the season, Burba then signed with the Brewers as a reliever and pitched for Milwaukee for parts of 2003 and 2004. He finished his career with a very short stint with the Giants in 2004. While he attempted a comeback in 2005, he would never pitch another game in the Majors.

Shortly after his playing career ended, Burba joined the Colorado Rockies minor league coaching staff and has found success there as well, starting in A ball with the Tri-City Dust Devils and moving up to AA with the New Britain Rock Cats where he is currently (2015) the team’s pitching coach.