Daniel Ray Spillner (born November 27, 1951) is an American former professional baseball player. He was a

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, who attempts to e ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

from 1974 to 1985. He played for the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penna ...

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive ...

and

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

. He led the Padres pitching staff in strikeouts in 1975.

Biography

Spillner attended Federal Way High School in

Federal Way, Washington Federal Way is a city in King County, Washington, United States. One of the most recently incorporated cities in the county, its population was 101,030 at the 2020 census. Federal Way is the tenth-largest city in Washington and the fifth-larg ...

. He played for the

, and

. His first career win was a 5–4 victory over Cincinnati on May 23, 1974. He threw a three-hit, ten-strikeout complete game shutout against Houston on September 11, 1974. He led the Padres in strikeouts in 1975 (104). After suffering through three losing seasons as a Padre starter, he was part of the major leagues' busiest bullpen in 1977: He and Dave Tomlin each had 76 appearances;

Rollie Fingers Roland Glen Fingers (born August 25, 1946) is an American former right-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for three teams between 1968 and 1985, when his effectiveness helped to redefine the value of relievers within baseb ...

, 78. A Cleveland starter in 1980, Spillner was 16–11 despite a 5.29 ERA. He was two outs away from a no-hitter on August 20 before rookie

Leo Sutherland Leonardo Sutherland Cantin (born April 6, 1958) is a Cuban-born former professional baseball player, an outfielder who appeared in 45 in Major League Baseball games for the 1980–1981 Chicago White Sox. He threw and batted left-handed, stood ...

had a single off him in a 3-0 victory over the White Sox; the no-hitter would have been the first in the AL since

Bert Blyleven Bert Blyleven (born Rik Aalbert Blijleven, April 6, 1951) is a Dutch American, Dutch-American former professional baseball pitcher who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1970 to 1992, primarily with the Minnesota Twins. Blyleve ...

's on September 22, 1977. He had one fine year as an Indians reliever, going 12–10 (2.49) with 21 saves in 1982. On July 29 of that year, he entered a game with two outs and the bases loaded in the eleventh, induced

Paul Molitor Paul Leo Molitor (born August 22, 1956), nicknamed "Molly" and "the Ignitor", is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) player and former manager of the Minnesota Twins, who is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. During his 21-year baseball car ...

to fly out to end the inning, and picked up the win in a 12-inning, 5-1 victory over the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. The Brewers are named for the city's association wi ...

. At the end of July that year, ''

The Toledo Blade ''The Blade'', also known as the ''Toledo Blade'', is a newspaper in Toledo, Ohio published daily online and printed Thursday and Sunday by Block Communications. The newspaper was first published on December 19, 1835. Overview The first issu ...

'' called him "one of the league's best" relief pitchers, after he had a 1.93 ERA and 12 saves to that point. For his career, he compiled a 75–89 record, with a 4.21 ERA, 878 strikeouts and 50 saves in 556 appearances. Spillner, who relied mostly on a fastball, was prone to giving up home runs. Baseball author

Bill James George William James (born October 5, 1949) is an American baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics ...

wrote that Spillner was the worst hitting pitcher of the 1970s. For his career, Spillner had a .077

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average i ...

, with 10 hits in 130 at bats, no home runs, and one run batted in.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spillner, Dan 1951 births Living people San Diego Padres players Cleveland Indians players Chicago White Sox players Major League Baseball pitchers Baseball players from Wyoming Tri-City Padres players Lodi Padres players Alexandria Aces players Hawaii Islanders players Sportspeople from Casper, Wyoming