Jose Lima moves the crowd on Turn Back The Clock Day, June 26, 1999

Lima defeats the LA Dodgers October 2, 1999, to set up the following day's division-clincher

OK one guess: Who in Astros history--minimum eleven career victories-- had the greatest percentage of those career wins come in one season? Trick question. Actually it was Sean Bergman. And of course, since I'm writing the question, I made it eleven wins because of the Johnson barrier, which says that no Astro--in his only season--shall ever win more than 10 games. But, anyway, yeah, I knew it, you guessed Jose Lima. Certainly no Astro's crash has ever been quite as spectacular as Lima's, but as the table below will tell you, his bright, brief flash upon the scene did have some parallels:

One Season Wonders: Season vs. Career Wins as an Astro
Minimum 11 Wins, 2 Seasons

Year	Pitcher	Wins	Astro Career Wins	% of Career Total	ERA	Astro Career ERA	% of Career ERA
1998	Sean Bergman	12	16	.750	3.72	4.32	0.86
1992	Doug Jones	11	15	.733	1.85	3.02	0.61
1986	Charley Kerfeld	11	15	.733	2.59	3.95	0.66
1973	Jerry Reuss	16	25	.640	3.74	3.91	0.95
1982	Don Sutton	13	24	.542	3.00	2.82	1.06
2000	Scott Elarton	17	32	.531	4.81	4.82	1.00
1963	Hal Woodeshick	11	21	.524	1.97	3.16	0.62
1963	Don Nottebart	11	21	.524	3.17	3.86	0.82
1984	Bill Dawley	11	22	.500	1.93	2.71	0.71
2004	Roger Clemens	18	38	.474	2.98	2.40	1.24
2005	Andy Pettitte	17	37	.459	2.39	3.38	0.71
1999	Jose Lima	21	46	.457	3.58	4.77	0.75
Clemens' and Pettite's numbers are current through 2006.

1999 Stadium Club # 11	1999 Skybox Thunder Rant # 70

People forget that Lima won 16 games in '98. And people also forget that, whatever else, Lima threw strikes. Jose Desiderio Rodriguez Lima is ninth all-time on the Astros list for Walks/9 Innings Pitched with a very respectable 1.97, better in that department than guys you've heard of like Vern Ruhle, Danny Darwin, and Shane Reynolds. So when he took that dive in 2000, it wasn't the walks that got Lima in trouble, it was the hits. Very pronouncedly, it was the hits. Lima, even in the good years, only had a so-so WHIP coz of all the hits he gave up. For example, even in his fourth-place Cy Young year of 1999, he gave up the fourth-most hits in the NL; this when he was third in the league in walks per nine. It's pretty extreme, actually: Lima is one of only seven Astros ever who gave up more than five times as many hits as walks in a career that lasted longer than 40 innings pitched.

Walks Per 9 Innings Pitched
Minimum 50 IP as an Astro

Pitcher	Walks Allowed	Innings Pitched	Walks Per Nine Innings
1. Hal Brown	34	273-1/3	1.120
2. Robin Roberts	20	139-2/3	1.289
3. Doug Jones	38	197	1.736
4. Dick Farrell	212	1015	1.880
5. Don Larsen	23	108-2/3	1.905
6. Don Sutton	75	353-2/3	1.909
7. Ron Taylor	26	122-1/3	1.913
8. Ken Johnson	151	690-2/3	1.968
9. Jose Lima	176	804	1.970
10. Russ Kemmerer	23	104-2/3	1.978
11. Shane Reynolds	358	1622-1/3	1.986
12. Vern Ruhle	166	749-2/3	1.993

2000 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion # 56G	2000 Stadium Club # 126

Actually, it might not have been the hits, either. It was probably the homers. Lima's 2000 season--when he gave up 48 very celebrated jacks-- remains second only to Bert Blyleven's 1986 campaign for most homers ever given up by a major leaguer in a single year. Lima gave up a homer basically every four innings, a rate even Blyleven can't touch. And while I can imagine in this era of diluted pitching staffs and overmuscled sluggers a pitcher toiling in some bandbox somewhere giving up more than 48 dingers in a season, Lima's Astro record--which he holds by a healthy fourteen over his 1998 incarnation--is likely to stand for some time to come. Wade Miller did give up 31 shots in 2001, but only allowed 14 in 2002, and Oswalt has never given up more than 17. Notice, however, the rates at which Elarton in 2001 and Dotel in 2000 gave up the long ball:

Most Homers Given Up, One Season

Pitcher	Year	Innings Pitched	Home Runs Allowed	Homers Allowed Per Inning Pitched
Jose Lima	2000	196-1/3	48	.244
Jose Lima	1998	233-1/3	34	.146
Wade Miller	2001	212	31	.146
Larry Dierker	1970	269-2/3	31	.115
Jose Lima	1999	246-1/3	30	.122
Scott Elarton	2000	192-2/3	29	.151
Mike Scott	1990	205-2/3	27	.131
Bob Knepper	1987	177-2/3	26	.146
Scott Elarton	2001	109-2/3	26	.237
Octavio Dotel	2000	125	26	.208
Bob Knepper	1984	233-2/3	26	.111

2001 Pacific Crown Collection # 15

Those who criticize Jose Lima these days, don't, I think, fully understand how gutsy he really was. The man has a high-80's fastball, and no curve to speak of. He lived off the change-up, and the change off the change. Even in good years, he gave up homer after homer. Yet he came back with the same pitches night after night--and once won 37 games over a two year span. Cojones de latón, I think Jose himself might call that. People say he was intimidated by the new ballpark, and they're probably right. But wouldn't you be, too? Lima was a flyball pitcher, who suddenly found that the 300-foot flyballs he was giving up were now landing in the Crawford Boxes. And going to Detroit wasn't gonna help much either. So give the guy a break, and some credit for what he was able to accomplish. Jose Lima was a lot of fun to watch and to follow; wearing his glove on his head, banging bats against trash cans in the dugout in order to spark some kind of half-imagined rally, the gyrations on the mound after a strikeout or a DP: the man was having a blast, and was a blast to watch. Even during the nightmare of a 2000 season he foisted upon his fans and himself, he remained at the least entertaining and candid. As I write, Lima has just been picked up by the KC Royals, for whom he started, gave up a homer, and took the loss, a couple days ago. He's got an ERA of 6.00, but I'll be pulling for him. Imagine that: Lima Time, again!

Jose Lima's Record in the Astros Organization

Year	ERA	Wins	Losses	Saves	Games	Starts	Complete Games	Innings Pitched	Hits	Runs	Earned Runs	Walks	K's
1997	5.28	1	6	2	52	1	0	75	79	45	44	16	63
1998	3.70	16	8	0	33	33	3	233-1/3	229	100	96	32	169
1999	3.58	21	10	0	35	35	3	246-1/3	256	108	98	44	187
2000	6.65	7	16	0	33	33	0	196-1/3	251	152	145	68	124
2001	7.30	1	2	0	14	9	0	53	77	48	43	16	41
Totals	4.77	46	42	2	167	111	6	804	892	453	426	176	584

Postcript: It's a couple weeks later , and while it hasn't become anything like Dontrelle Willis or even Roy Halladay, Lima Time is getting some press. It helps that Lima's won two straight for the Royals as I write, but evidently he took a few minutes out while throwing on the side one day, and learned how to throw a slider. Even Rob Neyer was noticing. But If it's that easy for him, you gotta wonder why no-one tried this in 2000 or 2001. What, Dierker or Ruhle couldn't show him how to hold his fingers?

Post-Postcript: It's May 22, 2010. RIP Jose. It was fun to be your fan.