ERA+ Estimators, All-Time Greats

So, after my last post (which I realize just went live this morning), I decided it would be fun to look at some of the great seasons of all time.  If you need explanations of what the numbers mean, see that other post.  Here are the numbers:

Bob Gibson, 1968:  206/106/628
Doc Gooden, 1985:  322/137/892
Greg Maddux, 1995:  235/91/494
Walter Johnson, 1910:  428/181/1585
Steve Carlton, 1972:  256/136/887
Curt Schilling, 2002:  328/196/852
Roger Clemens, 1997:  361/165/954
Pedro Martinez, 1999:  520/223/1111
Hal Newhouser, 1946:  867/156/2540
Randy Johnson, 2001:  320/207/1008
Justin Verlander, 2009:  228/112/548
Sandy Koufax, 1965:  300/207/1008
Lefty Grove, 1930: 4913/145/14299 (!!!!!)
Dizzy Dean, 1933:  945/120/2770
Cy Young, 1905:  317/123/1018

What's funny is,  last year, no one broke 1000 in the final category (and I doubt anyone will this year).  Basically, all of these guys either won the Cy Young in the year noted, or there was no CY, but the pitcher at hand was considered the best in the league.  There are a couple of exceptions, however:  Schilling '02 and Verlander '09.

Verlander lost out to Zack Greinke, who posted a 234/109/536 line, which is very, very similar to Verlander's.  Schilling in '02 lost out to teammate Randy Johnson, who posted a 300/175/780 line, which is just a hair below what Schilling did that year.  Neither of these could really be considered a "bad" choice, particularly Greinke over Verlander in '09, since they were nearly identical by this measure.

These columns are, of course, somewhat interesting.  What I found myself most drawn to was the middle column - it's SO-BB over average (if an average pitcher faced the same number of batters).  Both Randy Johnson and Sandy Koufax had differences of 207 over an average pitcher, but both pale in comparison to Pedro Martinez's 223 in 1999.

As for the other two columns, the first functions a bit like ERA+:  it shows how much better the player was than the league rate.  Obviously, Lefty Grove's 1930 line is absolutely ridiculous.  So is Martinez's, Newhouser's, and Dean's, when you look at them.  But the others?  Well, they're not actually that far off from some of the best ERA+ seasons of all-time.  High-200s, low-300s seems pretty normal for an historically great season.  So it doesn't even seem weird.

The final column, which is the rate/league rate multiplied by innings pitched, serves to take workload into account, so that a relief pitcher's line can be compared (somewhat) to a starting pitcher's.  Well, again, Grove is off the charts.  But most of the other numbers are pretty tame, actually.

So, the point is, I really like this stat line, and I think I'll return to it once in a while to check up on how various pitchers are doing in the coming years.