Historical hitting stats are probably a little more fun and more accessible to enjoy but there have been a lot of great pitchers that caused us to sit in awe whenever they toed the rubber. Hopefully you've been able to read the Batting GOATs post on this website so you know what the objective is with this past vs. present comparison and we'll stick with the format and take the best pitching seasons in Major League history and see how they compare with the greatest Shocker Baseball fantasy seasons.
Finding the "best" batting seasons in baseball history is pretty easy to highlight. More hits, walks, stolen bases, etc. usually add up to a fantastic season but pinpointing the best pitching season is a little tougher. We're going to stick with using fantasy points as our gauge and I'll admit that there are flaws to this logic but it's about as good as I can do. Innings pitched and strikeouts are essential to accruing fantasy points, which can inflate the overall points earned by pitchers from the 1880-1940 era while penalizing pitchers that weren't trotting out to the mound every other day. I tried to stay away from the pitchers of the deadball era because their stats are pretty skewed but we should try to encompass as much time as we can for this so we will give a nod to the gents that played in the early years of this sport, too. Below is the scoring table we'll use and I'll try to guide us all along as we highlight the best ball hurlers we've ever seen or read about.
Finding the "best" batting seasons in baseball history is pretty easy to highlight. More hits, walks, stolen bases, etc. usually add up to a fantastic season but pinpointing the best pitching season is a little tougher. We're going to stick with using fantasy points as our gauge and I'll admit that there are flaws to this logic but it's about as good as I can do. Innings pitched and strikeouts are essential to accruing fantasy points, which can inflate the overall points earned by pitchers from the 1880-1940 era while penalizing pitchers that weren't trotting out to the mound every other day. I tried to stay away from the pitchers of the deadball era because their stats are pretty skewed but we should try to encompass as much time as we can for this so we will give a nod to the gents that played in the early years of this sport, too. Below is the scoring table we'll use and I'll try to guide us all along as we highlight the best ball hurlers we've ever seen or read about.
Apparently historical Quality Start stats are about as hard to find as the holy grail, so I was forced to stick with Wins instead.
We'll open it up with two aces from the same team that have been compared before and probably will be linked together for the rest of their lives.
We'll open it up with two aces from the same team that have been compared before and probably will be linked together for the rest of their lives.
It was shocking to see Sandy Koufax walk away from the game he was so good at but it wasn't before he gave us quite possibly the best pitching season ever. Koufax pitched in an era where the strike zone was about the same dimensions as a movie screen but it shouldn't really cheapen any of the great numbers Sandy put up in 1963. 382 strikeouts in one season is probably not happening for a very long time and Koufax used his untouchable curveball to perform fatalities on batters throughout the 1963 season. Clayton Kershaw had the best season we've seen in our fantasy league and if it wasn't for an injury early in the 2014 season for Matt Suer, his numbers would be even more impressive. Kershaw might've won 26 games like Coufax and probably would've closed the strikeout gap a bit but no matter what, it wouldn't have been as impressive as Koufax'sm season. Both of these Dodgers played in big time pitching eras and both took full advantage in order to climb to SP1 status in the league's history.
The first stat that starts to stand out is the Innings Pitched for all of these old time pitchers as these numbers look like mistakes compared to the stats we see today. Walter Johnson is very possibly the best pitcher ever and his 1913 season is a huge reason why. Johnson got the ball early and often and he made the most of his starts by winning 36 games and keeping hitters off the bases with an 0.78 WHIP. Justin Verlander is another big train in terms of stature and power pitching and the fact he was able to strike out 7 more batters with 95 less innings than Johnson was huge for Jeff Petty's fantasy team in 2011. Both of these pitchers were incredibly intimidating to see on the mound and both were dominant for an entire season as they racked up the pitching points.
Like I said earlier, I stayed away from a lot of the pitchers from the infant days of baseball but I wanted to throw in one pitcher to show you his stats, all of which we will never see again. First off, the guy's name is Pud, which is funny and equally as laughable as the amount of times Pud threw a baseball back in 1884. I would be shocked if Pud could wipe his ass in his golden years because pitching 636 baseball innings is pretty much the worst thing you can do to a human elbow. Pud did pitch a lot of innings but that also means that he gave up a lot of hits and runs, which brings his fantasy point total down into the three spot on the all-time list. Kershaw threw 403 less innings in 2011 than Pud did in 1884 but if Kershaw was somehow able to throw 636 innings in a season, it would be very interesting to see the points he would be able to accumulate. Meyer would've loved to see that too as he was the lucky owner of Clayton Kershaw in 2011, a year where he became a household name. Kershaw is the best pitcher we've seen since we started playing fantasy baseball and even though there's no way he can hang with the sheer volume of pitches the old timers threw, it's still fun to put these guys side-to-side to see how they stack up.
The only time we really hear about Denny McLain is when someone mentions that he's the last 30 game winner in the major leagues. McLain had a magical 1968 season that gave us the last 30 win season and is one of the last times a pitcher will start 40 or more times in a season. Four man rotations and complete games are almost extinct in baseball now which is probably good for the long term health of pitchers but it also means that we won't be able to see the excellence that occurs when a great pitcher pushes his body to the limits for one season. Max Scherzer cemented himself as a top five fantasy pitcher in 2013 for Jerome and the fact that he only lost three games in 32 starts tells you how good he was at consistently shutting down offenses. Both of these Tigers from Detroit gave their fans seasons to remember and both took the ball as much as their manager would let them and made the most of their starts.
Take your left hand and tap your right arm and call in the studs from the bullpen. Our first shutdown specialist had the words "Game Over" flashing from the scoreboard whenever he came in and once this bespectacled man hit the mound, it usually equaled a win for the Dodgers. Gagne struck out an incredible 137 batters in just 82 innings and while his 55 saves isn't the most ever recorded, Gagne's 2003 season is the best from a closer in fantasy history. Craig Kimbrel has been the best closer in our fantasy league and his 2012 season for Kevin Petty is the best of the best. Both of these closers generated a ton of whiffs and both were the greatest at locking down a "W" for their real teams and a "SV" for their fantasy teams.
Eckersley is somewhat underrated as a pitcher because the man would start, finish, or do about everything in between to help out a ball club. His 1992 season saw him get a little lucky with the wins out of the bullpen but it's hard to look past the other stats associated with Eck in '92. I don't know what Fernando Rodney did after the 2011 season ended but he went from a shaky closer to a dominating force out of the clear blue yonder. Rodney didn't strike out batters as frequently as most closers but I can't think of a pitcher that kept batters off the bases as well as Rodney did for Zach Suer in 2012. Rodney wasn't drafted at the start of the year but he was barely behind Kimbrel in 2012 in terms of most valuable RP that season and in the history of the Shocker League.
Finally, we'll gather all of the seasons that are generally considered the best of all time and put them in one table for everyone. Like I said, these aren't necessarily the top scoring fantasy seasons of all time due to the crazy data we're dealing with but in terms of perception and stats, these names are on most everyone's list when they talk about best seasons ever.
Finally, we'll gather all of the seasons that are generally considered the best of all time and put them in one table for everyone. Like I said, these aren't necessarily the top scoring fantasy seasons of all time due to the crazy data we're dealing with but in terms of perception and stats, these names are on most everyone's list when they talk about best seasons ever.
The reason why we can't really use fantasy points to determine the best of all time is represented well by Pedro Martinez's 2000 season. This was the height of the steroid era when everyone was blasting baseballs and Pedro was still able to maintain crazy low numbers. If you're looking at performances relative to their peers, like the WAR stat, it's going to be very hard to beat Pedro's season in 2000 as he was head and shoulders above the rest of the league. A 0.74 WHIP in that era can't be overstated and is the lowest WHIP from a starting pitcher for a season ever. Even though ERA's are lower now than they've been in a long time, I don't know if anyone will go lower than Bob Gibson's 1.12 mark he set in 1968. I think it's safe to say that nobody is going to come close to 382 K's in a season like Koufax did in 1963, too.
It might be more fun to focus on major league hitters when watching baseball or when playing fantasy baseball but if you want to build a championship team in eaither league, a quality pitching staff is essential. I hope everyone enjoyed a short look back at our fantasy league and a longer look back at the pitching greats of the Major Leagues. These pitchers were blessed with great arms, were the leaders of their respective staffs, and together have accumulated more gems than the Shane Company. Now you have a friend in the diamond business: the Shane Company. Just off Arapahoe road on Emporia Street, a half a mile east of I-25. Open every night Monday through Friday 'til 8. Saturday and Sunday 'til 5.
It might be more fun to focus on major league hitters when watching baseball or when playing fantasy baseball but if you want to build a championship team in eaither league, a quality pitching staff is essential. I hope everyone enjoyed a short look back at our fantasy league and a longer look back at the pitching greats of the Major Leagues. These pitchers were blessed with great arms, were the leaders of their respective staffs, and together have accumulated more gems than the Shane Company. Now you have a friend in the diamond business: the Shane Company. Just off Arapahoe road on Emporia Street, a half a mile east of I-25. Open every night Monday through Friday 'til 8. Saturday and Sunday 'til 5.