Pitchers with ERA+ of 200
Posted by Andy on September 15, 2007
An ERA+ of 200 or better basically means an ERA that was at most half of the league average, where the league average ERA has been adjusted to that pitcher's home ballpark.
Not too many pitchers have ever done it in a full season where they qualified for the ERA title. The full list, quite interesting, is after the jump.
This was done with a very simple PI Pitching Season Finder query.
Cnt Player Year ERA+ Age Tm Lg G GS CG SHO GF W L W-L% SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA HR BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ Pit Str +----+-----------------+----+----+---+---+--+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+-----+--+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+--+----+----+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+----+----+ 1 Roger Clemens 2005 221 42 HOU NL 32 32 1 0 0 13 8 .619 0 211.1 151 51 44 62 185 1.87 11 838 761 26 3 5 3 9 3 16 8 4 2 1 3 .198 .261 .284 .545 48 3200 2036 2 Pedro Martinez 2003 212 31 BOS AL 29 29 3 0 0 14 4 .778 0 186.2 147 52 46 47 206 2.22 7 749 685 37 5 0 9 4 4 9 5 3 0 0 5 .215 .272 .314 .586 52 2839 1869 3 Pedro Martinez 2000 285 28 BOS AL 29 29 7 4 0 18 6 .750 0 217 128 44 42 32 284 1.74 17 817 768 18 1 0 14 2 1 11 10 3 2 0 1 .167 .213 .259 .472 19 3208 2160 4 Pedro Martinez 1999 245 27 BOS AL 31 29 5 1 1 23 4 .852 0 213.1 160 56 49 37 313 2.07 9 835 780 38 0 1 9 3 6 11 21 10 0 0 6 .205 .248 .288 .536 34 5 Pedro Martinez 1997 221 25 MON NL 31 31 13 4 0 17 8 .680 0 241.1 158 65 51 67 305 1.90 16 947 860 24 4 5 9 9 1 16 20 5 3 1 3 .184 .250 .277 .527 42 6 Roger Clemens 1997 226 34 TOR AL 34 34 9 3 0 21 7 .750 0 264 204 65 60 68 292 2.05 9 1044 957 41 3 1 12 5 2 27 10 9 3 0 4 .213 .273 .290 .563 47 7 Kevin Brown 1996 214 31 FLA NL 32 32 5 3 0 17 11 .607 0 233 187 60 49 33 159 1.89 8 906 849 22 6 2 16 4 4 26 12 9 3 1 6 .220 .262 .289 .551 52 8 Greg Maddux 1995 259 29 ATL NL 28 28 10 3 0 19 2 .905 0 209.2 147 39 38 23 181 1.63 8 785 748 22 0 3 4 9 1 16 26 6 2 0 1 .197 .224 .258 .482 29 9 Greg Maddux 1994 273 28 ATL NL 25 25 10 3 0 16 6 .727 0 202 150 44 35 31 156 1.56 4 774 726 22 2 3 6 6 5 21 22 6 2 1 3 .207 .243 .259 .502 34 10 Roger Clemens 1990 211 27 BOS AL 31 31 7 4 0 21 6 .778 0 228.1 193 59 49 54 209 1.93 7 920 847 35 5 3 7 7 5 11 14 14 2 0 8 .228 .278 .306 .584 60 11 Dwight Gooden 1985 226 20 NYM NL 35 35 16 8 0 24 4 .857 0 276.2 198 51 47 69 268 1.53 13 1065 986 23 3 4 2 6 2 21 22 10 5 2 6 .201 .254 .270 .524 53 12 Ron Guidry 1978 208 27 NYY AL 35 35 16 9 0 25 3 .893 0 273.2 187 61 53 72 248 1.74 13 1057 969 34 5 1 1 13 2 15 9 14 2 1 7 .193 .249 .279 .528 49 13 Bob Gibson 1968 258 32 STL NL 34 34 28 13 0 22 9 .710 0 304.2 198 49 38 62 268 1.12 11 1161 1075 23 0 6 7 15 2 18 6 5 0 0 4 .184 .233 .236 .469 47 14 Dean Chance 1964 200 23 LAA AL 46 35 15 11 7 20 9 .690 4 278.1 194 56 51 86 207 1.65 7 1093 994 20 4 9 2 9 2 31 8 4 0 0 9 .195 .260 .244 .504 53 15 Billy Pierce 1955 201 28 CHW AL 33 26 16 6 5 15 10 .600 1 205.2 162 50 45 64 157 1.97 16 836 5 3 1 4 0 16 Lefty Grove 1931 219 31 PHA AL 41 30 27 4 10 31 4 .886 5 288.2 249 84 66 62 175 2.06 10 1160 1 0 2 0 17 Dolf Luque 1923 201 32 CIN NL 41 37 28 6 4 27 8 .771 2 322 279 90 69 88 151 1.93 2 1301 5 1 4 0 18 Walter Johnson 1919 214 31 WSH AL 39 29 27 7 10 20 14 .588 2 290.1 235 73 48 51 147 1.49 0 1155 7 1 4 0 19 Walter Johnson 1918 214 30 WSH AL 39 29 29 8 10 23 13 .639 3 326 241 71 46 70 162 1.27 2 1261 8 0 8 0 20 Pete Alexander 1915 225 28 PHI NL 49 42 36 12 7 31 10 .756 3 376.1 253 86 51 64 241 1.22 3 1435 10 0 2 0 21 Dutch Leonard 1914 279 22 BOS AL 36 25 17 7 9 19 5 .792 3 224.2 139 34 24 60 176 0.96 3 846 8 0 2 0 22 Walter Johnson 1913 259 25 WSH AL 48 36 29 11 11 36 7 .837 2 346 232 56 44 38 243 1.14 9 1305 9 0 3 0 23 Walter Johnson 1912 240 24 WSH AL 50 37 34 7 13 33 12 .733 2 369 259 89 57 76 303 1.39 2 1426 16 0 11 0 24 Christy Mathewson 1909 222 28 NYG NL 37 33 26 8 4 25 6 .806 2 275.1 192 57 35 36 149 1.14 2 1021 0 0 4 0 25 Addie Joss 1908 205 28 CLE AL 42 35 29 9 6 24 11 .686 2 325 232 77 42 30 130 1.16 2 1244 2 0 6 0 +----+-----------------+----+----+---+---+--+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+-----+--+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+--+----+----+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+----+----+ Cnt Player Year ERA+ Age Tm Lg G GS CG SHO GF W L W-L% SV IP H R ER BB SO ERA HR BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS Pk BK WP BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ Pit Str +----+-----------------+----+----+---+---+--+---+--+--+---+--+--+--+-----+--+-----+---+---+---+---+---+------+--+----+----+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+----+----+----+ 26 Jack Pfiester 1907 216 29 CHC NL 30 22 13 3 5 14 9 .609 0 195 143 61 25 48 90 1.15 1 745 5 0 2 0 27 Carl Lundgren 1907 212 27 CHC NL 28 25 21 7 3 18 7 .720 0 207 130 42 27 92 84 1.17 0 795 2 1 2 0 28 Mordecai Brown 1906 253 29 CHC NL 36 32 27 9 4 26 6 .813 3 277.1 198 56 32 61 144 1.04 1 1062 4 1 2 0 29 Ed Reulbach 1905 209 22 CHC NL 34 29 28 5 5 18 14 .563 1 291.2 208 71 46 73 152 1.42 1 1147 18 1 5 0 30 Christy Mathewson 1905 230 24 NYG NL 43 37 32 8 6 31 9 .775 2 338.2 252 85 48 64 206 1.28 4 1319 1 3 6 0 31 Jack Taylor 1902 202 28 CHC NL 36 33 33 7 3 23 11 .676 1 324.2 271 86 48 43 83 1.33 2 1303 10 0 9 0 32 Cy Young 1901 216 34 BOS AL 43 41 38 5 2 33 10 .767 0 371.1 324 112 67 37 158 1.62 6 1466 8 0 2 0
So it's been done just 32 times since 1901, and virtually every name on this list is one of the all-time greats (excepting a number of players who didn't have careers long enough to be considered a great: Jack Taylor, Ed Reulbach, Carl Lundgren, Jack Pfiester, Dutch Leonard, Dean Chance, and Kevin Brown; and a couple who had long careers that were good but not great: Dolf Luque and Billy Pierce.)
But what I find interesting is the frequency of such seasons in history. From 1901 to 1931, we saw 17 of the 32 such seasons (53%) and since 1985 we've seen another 11 out of the 32 (34%) and in the intervening 53 seasons we saw only 4 of them, including Bob Gibson's truly awesome 1968.
September 18th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Y'know, for all the talk about how great Koufax was back in the day (and let's face it, he was pretty amazing), I find it very interesting that he isn't on this list at all.
September 18th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Well I think that's due to the general dearth of very low ERAs in the period 1932 to 1985...with ERAs league-wide being so low, it's virtually impossible to have an ERA as small as half of that.