The Best Starting Pitching Staffs in the Last 100 Years: Part IV

From Part I: Pitching, pitching, pitching. You may have heard the saying, “You can never have enough pitching.” Of course, if you are going to have good pitching it begins with your starting pitching staff.

Which starting pitching staff was the best ever?

I considered and reviewed every team that made it to the World Series and some other notable ones that did not. After viewing all the statistics, teams after the Dead Ball Era were only considered. Comparatively, considering teams before and after 1920 is more an apples-to-oranges comparison than an apples-to-apples one. (You can read Part II here.)

PART IV

Another way to compare pitching staffs is how their ERA compared to others in the same league that year. Why? In 1968, pitching statistics were better throughout major league baseball, but which starting pitching staffs stood out in their respective year? The following starting pitching staffs had an ERA one run or more less than the average starting pitcher’s ERA in their league that year and how much lower it was than their league average:

ERA BELOW LG	YEAR	TEAM
1.89	1925	Washington Senators
1.38	1998	Atlanta Braves
1.36	1997	Atlanta Braves
1.26	2019	Los Angeles Dodgers
1.22	2016	Chicago Cubs
1.20	1948	Cleveland Indians
1.19	1938	New York Yankees
1.19	2011	Philadelphia Phillies
1.17	1939	New York Yankees
1.12	2002	Seattle Mariners
1.11	1944	St. Louis Cardinals
1.10	1964	Chicago White Sox
1.06	2017	Los Angeles Dodgers
1.05	1998	New York Yankees
1.04	1942	St. Louis Cardinals
1.01	1999	Atlanta Braves
1.00	1927	New York Yankees
1.00	1954	New York Giants
1.00	1985	Los Angeles Dodgers

You may be wondering about some other notable pitching staffs that did not get mentioned because they did not make any of my five gold starting pitching staff standards.

Those would include: The 1961 Dodgers, 1962 Dodgers, 1980 Astros, 1980 Orioles, 1993 Braves, 1998 Astros, 2002 Braves, 2002 Yankees, and the 2014 Tigers.

After digesting all those statistics, the gold standard of a four-man rotation to no one’s surprise would be the 1971 Orioles.

PITCHER	W-L	ERA
Mike Cuellar	20-9	3.08
Pat Dobson	20-8	2.90
Jim Palmer	20-9	2.65
Dave McNally	21-5	2.89

The Orioles quartet combined for an 81-31 record and an ERA of 2.89 and won 81 out of the Orioles 101 wins on the year.

The only other quartet to have four 20-game winners were the 1920 White Sox. They combined for a record of 87-46 and an ERA of 3.38. They won 87 out of their team’s 96 wins.

PITCHER	W-L	ERA
Red Faber	23-13	2.99
Eddie Cicotte	21-10	3.26
Lefty Williams	22-14	3.91
Dickey Kerr	21-9	3.37

Although back then, relievers were pitchers that were not good enough to be starters. As a result, starting pitchers were more likely to factor into a higher percentage of their team’s wins.

The starters for the 1942 Yankees, the 1944 St. Louis Cardinals, the 1954 Indians and the 1971 Orioles met four of my five gold standards. The ’42 Yankees, ’54 Indians and ’71 Orioles starters combined ERA was less than their league’s starting pitchers average but still within one run of their league’s average. The Yankees were 0.97 lower, the Indians 0.82 lower, and the Orioles 0.58.

The ’42 Yankees used six starting pitchers that year:

PITCHER	W-L	ERA
Tiny Bonham	21-5	2.27
Spud Chandler	16-5	2.38
Hank Borowy	15-4	2.52
Red Ruffing	14-7	3.21
Atley Donald	11-3	3.11
Marv Breuer	8-9	3.07

The 1944 Cardinals starters almost made all five of my gold standards but fell one percent short of winning 80 percent of their team’s games as they won 79 percent of them.

PITCHER	W-L	ERA
Mort Cooper	22-7	2.46
Max Lanier	17-12	2.65
Ted Wilks	17-4	2.64
Harry Brecheen	16-5	2.85
Red Munger	11-3	1.34

Interestingly, only one starting pitching staff met all five of my gold standards: 80 wins, an ERA under 3.00, an ERA at least one run less than their league’s average starting pitchers, a winning percentage of .700 or better and winning 80 percent of their team’s wins – the 1998 Atlanta Braves.

PITCHER	W-L	ERA
Tom Glavine	20-6	2.47
Greg Maddux	18-9	2.22
John Smoltz	17-3	2.90
Kevin Millwood	17-8	4.08
Denny Neagle	16-11	3.55

The 1998 Braves had only the second starting pitching staff in Major League Baseball history that had five 16-game winners or better.

The other team to have five 16-game winners were the 1923 New York Yankees.

PITCHER	W-L	ERA
Sad Sam Jones	21-8	3.63
Herb Pennock	19-6	3.13
Bullet Joe Bush	19-15	3.43
Waite Hoyt	17-9	3.02
Bob Shawkey	16-11	3.51

They were the only pitching staff to have five 16-game winners till the 1998 Braves did it. As good as those Yankees starters were, they only met three of my five gold standards having an ERA of 3.42 which was only 0.39 less than the average starting pitchers in the American League that year.

The 1954 Cleveland Indians starting pitching staff:

PITCHER	W-L	ERA
Early Wynn	23-11	2.73
Bob Lemon	23-7	2.72
Mike Garcia	19-8	2.64
Art Houtteman	15-7	3.35
Bob Feller	13-3	3.09

The 1944 Cardinals would be comparable to the 1998 Braves for the best five-man starting pitching staffs.

As the numbers show, the best 4-man starting pitching staff was the 1971 Baltimore Orioles. The best 5-man starting pitching staff was the 1998 Atlanta Braves. The best 6-man starting pitching staff was the 1942 New York Yankees.