BASEBALL
	8.25.05 Top 20 Pitching Seasons since 1970 The battle for the Cy Young award in the National League is a close battle between (in my estimation) Roger Clemens and Chris Carpenter.  Dontrelle Willis is hovering on the fringe, too, but for now it is a two man race.  Both Clemens and Carpenter have put together historically great seasons.  With just a bit over a month to go, I wondered where their seasons fit into the list of historically great seasons.  To that end, I researched and came up with a list of 29 superlative seasons over the last 35 years.  I then ranked them against each other on several criteria: Wins, Complete Games, Shutouts, Walks, Strikeouts, ERA, and ERA+ [ERA+ is a sabermetric calculation that compares a pitcher's ERA, adjusted for ballpark influences, to his league's average ERA - a score of 100 is league average, above that is better than league average and below is... well worse than average, obviously].  Because I don't consider those categories to be equal (and this is my little ranking project), I weighted the categories (wins x2, strikeouts x2, ERA x3, ERA+ x3).  With no further ado, here are the results: Honorable Mention Roger Clemens   1987  20-9   18 CG 7 SHO   83 BB   256 K   2.97 ERA  154 ERA+ Roger Clemens   1998  20-6    5 CG  3 SHO   88 BB   271 K   2.65 ERA  176 ERA+ Frank Viola        1988  24-7    7 CG  2 SHO   54 BB   193 K   2.64 ERA  155 ERA+ Greg Maddux     1992  20-11  9 CG  4 SHO   70 BB   199 K   2.18 ERA   166 ERA+ Orel Hershiser    1985  19-3    9 CG  5 SHO   68 BB   157 K   2.03 ERA   172 ERA+ Greg Maddux     1997  19-4    5 CG  2 SHO   20 BB   177 K   2.20 ERA   191 ERA+ Nolan Ryan        1973  21-16 26 CG  4 SHO  162 BB  383 K  2.87 ERA   124 ERA+ Randy Johnson   2001  21-6    3 CG   2 SHO   71 BB   372 K  2.49 ERA   184 ERA+ Randy Johnson  1995   18-2    6 CG   3 SHO   65 BB   294 K  2.48 ERA   196 ERA+ The Bottom 10 20.  Pedro Martinez 2002 20-4  2 CG 0 SHO 40 BB 239 K 2.26 ERA 196 ERA+   This remarkable season actually shows the beginning of Pedro slowing down, as you'll see further into this list.  This season suffers some on this list because Pedro didn't finish many games and didn't have as many innings pitched this year, which also led to fewer strikeouts. 19.  Greg Maddux 1998 18-9  9CG 5 SHO 45 BB 204 K 2.26 ERA 196 ERA+    Much like Pedro at 20, this season is the last of Maddux' dominant seasons.  Of course, Maddux has won 103 games (going into this season) since then, so dominance is somewhat relative.  This is the only season in Maddux' career in which he had more than 200 strikeouts. 18.  Roger Clemens 1986  24-4 10 CG 1 SHO 67 BB  238 K  2.48 ERA 169 ERA+   I really thought this season would end up higher on the list - mainly due to the 24 wins, I guess, but his walks, strikeouts, and ERA bring him down a bit.  What do you expect, he was only 23 years old at the time. 17.  Randy Johnson  1997  20-4  5 CG 2 SHO 77 BB 291 K 2.28 ERA 198 ERA+   This was Randy's last full season in Seattle.  Unlike most of the others on this list, The Big Unit didn't start having his big years until his 30's (this season he was 33 years old).  He only had 29 starts this year, which held him to *only* 291 Ks. 16.  Tom Seaver  1973  19-10  18 CG 3 SHO 64 BB 251 K 2.08 ERA 175 ERA+    The guys on this list from the 70's and early 80's dominate the CG's category because of the way the game has evolved in the last 10-15 years, but other factors (particularly ERA+ because recent league ERA's have been terrible) even things out.  Seaver led the Mets to a 82-79 record in 1973, which was good enough to win the NL East(!).  He pitched nearly 300 innings of 2.08ERA, but somehow only managed to win 19 games (probably because the Mets only averaged 3.75 runs per game). 15.  Jim Palmer  1975  23-11  25 CG 10 SHO 80 BB 193 K 2.09 ERA 169 ERA+   Yes, that is not a typo, Palmer had ten shutouts in 1975.  He made 38 starts that year, which is ridiculous by today's standards.  He also made one relief appearance and recorded a save. 14.  Kevin Brown 1996  17-11  5 CG 3 SHO  33 BB  159 K 1.89 ERA 214 ERA+   Later in his career Brown became more of a strikeout pitcher (racking up 257 in 1998), but he had his best season by throwing a lot of ground balls and not walking anyone. 13.  Bret Saberhagen  1989  23-6  12 CG 4 SHO 43 BB 193 K 2.16 ERA 178 ERA+  This was the last of Saberhagen's healthy years (save for a brief respite in Boston a decade later).  Perhaps the career high in strikeouts, starts, and innings took a toll on his arm. 12.  Randy Johnson  2002  24-5 8 CG 4 SHO 71 BB 334 K 2.32 ERA 190 ERA+   This is Johnson's peak on this list.  He had better seasons in almost all other categories (this is the most wins he ever had), but this is his all around best season.  300+ strikeouts combined with a 2.32 ERA is spectacular and won him his third straight Cy Young and the pitching triple crown. 11.  John Tudor  1985  21-8  14 CG  10 SHO  49 BB  169 K 1.93 ERA 183 ERA+  Through the end of May, 1985, John Tudor was 1-7 with a 3.74 ERA.  He won 20 of his next 26 starts and had all ten of his shutouts within that span.  Coincidentally, the Cardinals were 22-21 through Tudor's last start in May and thereafter they went 79-40. Tomorrow: The Top 10
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