single season WAR leaders for pitchers

craig44

WAR for position players is a pretty popular number many use as a part of player comparisons. I got bored so I was checking out the single season WAR leaders for pitchers post WW2. Here are the top 5 single seasons according to BBR:
1. Gooden 1985. 12.2
2. Carlton 1972. 12.1
3. Clemens 1997. 11.9
4. Pedro 2000. 11.7
5. Wilber Wood 1972. 11.7

wouldnt you say that one of these things doesnt look like the others???

in fact Wilber Wood has 2 of the top 10 WAR seasons after WW2 and they were back to back years.

I would say, simply based on WAR that Pedro's season was the greatest. he got to 11.7 with only 217 innings pitched.

old Wilber took 334 innings to accrue the same number or WAR.

for those wondering, Gibsons 68 season was 6th on the list.

dallasactuary

Similar to Juan Marichal, poor Wilbur had his great seasons - and they were truly GREAT - in the wrong years. I would have given the CYA to him in 1971, but that was Vida Blue's year, and nobody was going to beat him that year. Then in 1972 Wood ran into Gaylord Perry who had an incredible year. Perry did barely have a higher WAR than Wood that year, and he barely beat him in the Cy Young vote.

Wood's career is a big case of "what if". What if he had held a roster spot before he was 25? What if the White Sox hadn't wasted him in the bullpen for three full years? What if he had pitched for a better team?

Wood's 5-year run from 1971-1975 was every bit as good as Jim Hunter's run over the same period (also Hunter's peak years). Wood actually crushed Hunter in WAR, but in reality they were very close. Outside of those five years, Wood was better than Hunter. Had Wilbur Wood been an Athletic and Jim Hunter a White Sock, Wood would probably be in the Hall of Fame (no, he wouldn't deserve it, either), and only old guys like me and true fans of the game would even know who Jim Hunter was (which is how I would describe Wilbur Wood's actual fame level).

Wood is the starting pitcher on my personal "better than people think they were" team (Gene Tenace is catching), so I'm glad to see him get a thread.

coinkat

Interesting thread… I remember Wood starting in both games of a double header… off hand, I can’ t recall the year or team he pitched against. I was surprised that he made the list.

As for excellent pitchers that were better than people think they were, I will offer two… Camilo Pascual and the other from an earlier time- Dutch Leonard. As for catchers… Smokey Burgess and Walker Cooper. In selecting Burgess and Cooper, It is with some reluctance because older fans likely know how good they were.

dallasactuary

Pascual was arguably (it was very, very close between him, Wynn, Wilhelm, and Spahn) the best pitcher in baseball in 1959. Had he won the CYA that year, more people would remember him. As it is, you're right, he was better than people think he was.

Cooper is (or was, when I was growing up in the 60's and 70's) still well-known in St. Louis, but I'm sure he had already faded from the national memory. He probably suffers most from having his peak during the WWII years. Burgess was even better than Cooper, but if he's remembered today it's for catching Harvey Haddix when he lost his perfect game. There are a whole lot of catchers who were better than people think they were.

coinkat

Cooper and Burgess are close- I would not want pick one over the other but I can see Burgess getting the edge. Burgess was a record setting pinch hitter. I suspect most are not aware of his amazing batting stats in 1954.