All-Time Indians: Ray Lamb

The story of Ray Lamb is one of fleeting success, but success nonetheless during his short time with the Indians. The early 70’s were similar to the entire 1960’s, late 1970’s and all of the 1980’s for the Tribe as they involved multiple last place finishes, no play-off appearances and general poor play. Despite this, there were stars and Ray Lamb played well enough in his first two seasons to stick out statistically even today.

Lamb was originally drafted by the Dodgers in the 40th round in 1966 and, considering the usual return on a draft pick after the first ten rounds, far exceeded expectations. He made his professional debut the same year he was drafted and pitched well in Short Season A ball, but despite not being as impressive in his next two years in AA or in AAA in 1969, he was called up to big leagues that year in early August. While he had been generally used as a starter in the minors, he would be used exclusively in relief in both of his seasons in Los Angeles.

In his first season, he pitched sparingly and managed a 1.80 ERA in 15 innings, but more notably was the last player to wear the #42 for the Dodgers. Lamb would switch to 34 the following season and Jackie Robinson‘s number was retired by LA a few years later in 1972 and by all of Major League Baseball in 1997. Lamb was one of the Dodgers top relievers in 1970, pitching 57 innings with a 3.79 ERA and he was considered valuable enough by the Indians that they traded long time catcher Duke Sims to LA for Lamb and Alan Foster during the off-season before 1971.

Foster, a starter before and after the deal, may have been the name the Indians wanted most, but in the end Lamb would be the top performer out of all three players involved as Sims never repeated his Indians success. Although Foster would start for the Indians throughout 1971, he was traded again at the end of the season in a forgettable deal.

While the Indians rotations of the late 1960’s were a force to be reckoned with, by 1971 only Sam McDowell of the super group featuring Sudden Sam, Sonny Siebert and Luis Tiant was left. Lamb began the season in the bullpen, but it wasn’t long until he joined Foster and McDowell in the rotation. After allowing just one run in his first six appearances including three shut out innings his last time out, he was promoted to the starting five and had an impressive debut by pitching 8.1 innings and allowing just a single run on four hits against the Angels.

Lamb’s success would continue and his first month as a starter featured two complete games and a 2-2 record. Unfortunately, it seems that if Lamb didn’t go long distance, he had a penchant for early dismissal and seven times in his first season he was pulled from a game before the fifth because he had allowed three or more runs. Despite this, he had only a 3.13 ERA when he was pulled from the rotation at the end of August.

After a 6-12 record and 3.35 ERA in 1971, Lamb was back in the bullpen to begin the 1972 season. The Indians had a new ace in eventual Cy Young winner Gaylord Perry and, even with McDowell gone (traded for Perry), they had Steve Dunning put together the best season of his career at age 23 and Dick Tidrow come out of nowhere to have an incredible rookie campaign. Even with this, Lamb made just nine appearances out of the bullpen with a 3.98 before rejoining the rotation.

While this run wouldn’t work out any better than the first one, Lamb continued in this flex role for the rest of the season and put together the best overall season of his career. He pitched in 107.2 innings with a 3.09 ERA and most of those runs came in two appearances when he allowed a combined eight runs in 2.2 innings. Beyond those games, Lamb was (along with Phil Hennigan and Denny Riddleberger) one of the Indians most reliable relievers.

The Indians had learned their lesson and didn’t start Lamb in 1973 beyond one spot appearance when he managed to retire just one batter and allow five runs. He would finish the season with a 4.60 ERA, but again much of this was from a small amount of extremely poor appearances. He had seven appearances where he allowed three or more runs and 21 with zero or one runs allowed. Only five times all year was he used for a full inning or less (including that one start), so given his role as long distance reliever, his numbers were particularly impressive.

This would not only be Lamb’s last season with the Indians, but the last in his career at any level. At just 29 in 1974, the Indians released Lamb and he was unable to sign on with another team. The reasoning for this is unclear as the Indians didn’t have much in the bullpen the next season beyond closer Tom Buskey. In fact, no regular Indians reliever in 1974 besides Buskey had an ERA below 4.00. In the end, Lamb has been a generally forgotten pitcher for the Tribe, but in a short time, he accumulated some decent numbers, pitching in 109 games with a 3.58 ERA and 215 strike outs.