In case you missed it, I named my all-decade lineup for 2010-19 earlier this week. Pitchers were omitted from that piece, but now we’ll dedicate this post to the most successful hurlers from 2010-19, and I’ll leave it up to you select the best one from the previous decade. Realistically, there are only a few pitchers capable of emerging victorious in this poll, but it’s still worthwhile to run down the top 10 from several important categories (minimum 1,000 innings). Playoff performance isn’t listed, but if that factors heavily into your judgment of pitchers, it could affect your choice. Special thanks to FanGraphs for the below data…
ERA:
- 1. Clayton Kershaw: 2.31
- 2. Jacob deGrom: 2.62
- 3. Johnny Cueto/Chris Sale: 3.06
- 4. Justin Verlander: 3.10
- 5. Max Scherzer: 3.12
- 6. Madison Bumgarner: 3.14
- 7. Corey Kluber: 3.15
- 8. Stephen Strasburg: 3.17
- 9. Zack Greinke: 3.18
- 10. Gerrit Cole: 3.22
FIP:
- 1. Clayton Kershaw: 2.64
- 2. Jacob deGrom: 2.78
- 3. Chris Sale: 2.90
- 4. Stephen Strasburg: 2.98
- 5. Corey Kluber: 2.99
- 6. Gerrit Cole/Max Scherzer: 3.06
- 7. Zack Greinke/Justin Verlander: 3.26
- 8. David Price: 3.28
- 9. Adam Wainwright: 3.31
- 10. Madison Bumgarner: 3.32
fWAR:
- 1. Clayton Kershaw: 59.1
- 2. Max Scherzer: 55.0
- 3. Justin Verlander: 53.8
- 4. Chris Sale: 42.8
- 5. Zack Greinke: 41.6
- 6. David Price: 39.9
- 7. Cole Hamels: 36.8
- 8. Stephen Strasburg: 36.7
- 9. Jon Lester: 35.3
- 10. Felix Hernandez: 34.5
RA-9 WAR:
- 1. Clayton Kershaw: 66.4
- 2. Justin Verlander: 58.9
- 3. Max Scherzer: 56.4
- 4. Cole Hamels: 45.8
- 5. Zack Greinke: 45.6
- 6. Chris Sale: 42.2
- 7. David Price: 41.7
- 8. Jon Lester: 38.6
- 9. Johnny Cueto: 36.1
- 10. Felix Hernandez: 35.0
Strikeouts per nine:
- 1. Yu Darvish/Chris Sale: 11.12
- 2. Max Scherzer: 10.69
- 3. Stephen Strasburg: 10.6
- 4. Jacob deGrom: 10.25
- 5. Gerrit Cole: 10.06
- 6. Chris Archer: 9.84
- 7. Clayton Kershaw: 9.83
- 8. Corey Kluber: 9.8
- 9. Trevor Bauer: 9.51
- 10. Carlos Carrasco/Justin Verlander: 9.5
Walks per nine:
- 1. Bartolo Colon: 1.55
- 2. Dan Haren: 1.74
- 3. Masahiro Tanaka: 1.79
- 4. Jordan Zimmermann: 1.87
- 5. Phil Hughes/Mark Buehrle: 1.94
- 6. Corey Kluber: 1.95
- 7. Clayton Kershaw: 1.96
- 8. Mike Leake/Chris Sale: 1.97
- 9. Hiroki Kuroda: 2.0
- 10. Zack Greinke: 2.01
Cy Young Awards:
- 1. Clayton Kershaw/Max Scherzer: 3
- 2. Jacob deGrom/Justin Verlander/Corey Kluber: 2
- 3. Jake Arrieta/R.A. Dickey/Roy Halladay/Felix Hernandez/Dallas Keuchel/Rick Porcello/David Price/Blake Snell: 1
Innings:
- 1. Justin Verlander: 2,142
- 2. Max Scherzer: 2,063 2/3
- 3. Clayton Kershaw: 1,995
- 4. Zack Greinke: 1,984
- 5. Jon Lester: 1,979 2/3
- 6. Cole Hamels: 1,955
- 7. David Price: 1,877 2/3
- 8. Rick Porcello: 1,860 1/3
- 9. James Shields: 1,840
- 10. Madison Bumgarner: 1,836
Wins:
- 1. Max Scherzer: 161
- 2. Justin Verlander: 160
- 3. Clayton Kershaw: 156
- 4. Zack Greinke: 155
- 5. Jon Lester: 148
- 6. David Price: 139
- 7. Rick Porcello: 135
- 8. Gio Gonzalez: 122
- 9. Madison Bumgarner: 119
- 10. Adam Wainwright: 116
(Poll link for app users)