I thought I would wait to post this, but of course my curiosity got the best of me so I had to explore the all time ranks of pitchers and see what milestones lie ahead in 2018.

Let’s start with wins, which I know people now discount. It is true that now wins are a combination of more than offense and the starting pitcher. No long do we have the complete game stat meaning anything. Jack Morris completed 175 to rank 176 and Syl Johnson ranks number 500 with 82 complete games and in that 500-pitcher list there is not one current pitcher. So yes wins don’t count so much now, but they did. Current leaders in complete games are Sabathia – 38 in 17 years of pitching, Colon 37 in 20 years, Hernandez 25 in 13 years, Kershaw 25 in 10, and Shields 23 in 12 years. Ervin Santana is 8th among active pitchers with 21 in 13 years and new comer Anibal Sanchez is 23 with 9 in 12 years. It is almost embarrassing, my favorite all time pitcher who I used to watch in Milwaukee had 382 complete games in 21 years with 363 wins. Camilo Pascual – my favorite early Twin had 132 in 18 years and Blyleven had 141.

Colon has the most wins – 240 – and ranks 54 – and 5 wins gets him to rank number 50. He ranks 81 in losses. Sabathia has 237 wins – rank number 58. That is it for top 100. Going to 150 on the list is Lackey and Verlander – 188 rank 143.

MLB’s lifetime ERA list has Felix Hernandez 3.20 ranked 107 which is the highest current teacher. Hamels at 161, Greinke at 171 – 3.40, Verlander 193 – 3.46 are the others in the top 10. MLB did not give a cut off for how many innings are required to be on this list. Going to ESPN and Kimbrel 2, Jansen 9, Chapman 16, and Betances 29 are the current pitchers in the top 30, but if you are like me ERA for one inning pitchers has no value. Kershaw is tied for 38 on this list and would be higher than that on MLB, but I think 10 years is required for the MLB list. The only other current pitcher in the top 50 is Chris Devenski and all of his 44.1 innings. Ken Giles and Darren O’Day are the only other active pitchers in the top 100.

Sabathia is number 18 in strikeouts 2846 and should pass Jim Bunning this year. Colon is 37 right behind Jim Kaat and with 24 he can catch Jack Morris at 34 – that sounds possible, but based on what I saw last year I would not guarantee it. Verlander has 2416, ranks 41 – tied with Luis Tiant and he should move to 23 with another 200 Ks this year putting him near David Cone. Felix Hernandez is 48, Grienke 57, Hamels 58, Scherzer is tied with Dennis Martinez at 66 and Clayton Kershaw is 68. Shields is 72 which seems to reflect on the abundance of Ks in this period. Lester in 77 and our own Ervin Santana is the last current pitcher in the top 100 – he ranks 99 and 107 Ks (when he is healthy again) will catch Catfish Hunter at 81. Eventually there will be many current era pitchers near the top of the list which makes Nolan Ryan all the more remarkable.

Fernando Rodney is tied with Bruce Sutter (HOF) and Jason Isringhausen at #26 in saves. Thirty more saves and he ties with John Wetteland for #14 and is right behind Rollie Fingers. There are more current players on the list below Rodney, but of course there are, in the past pitchers pitched when needed and the artificial Save stat was not important or kept.

In WAR, Cy Young has set the standard – 170.3, second is Walter Johnson with 152.3 from our Twin predecessor team, our Bert Blyleven is 11 with 96.5, and Juan Marichal closes the top 50 with 61.9. No active pitchers there. The highest ranked active pitcher is CC Sabathia with 60.7 at 56 tied with Charlie Buffinton which is a player I never heard of – he played for 11 years in the 1890s and was both a pitcher and first baseman. Clayton Kershaw is 68 with 57.4, while Greinke and Verlander are tied with Eddie Cicotte at 72 with 56.9 and just behind Minnesotan – Jerry Koosman. Cole Hamels is 87 with 52.7, Felix Hernandez is 91 with 52.2. Johan Santana is ranked number 100 with 50.7 and Bartolo Colon is 116 with 47.5 just ahead of our Frank Viola 47.4. Jim Kaat is 130 at 45.3 and just two ahead of Max Scherzer at 44.6 and ranked 133.

Minnesota native, Ojibwa pitcher from Brainerd and in the HOF Chief Bender is 137 and two places ahead of Jack Morris who had 43.8. My favorite – Twin/Senator great, Camilo Pascual is 191 with 37.8.

I do wonder if applying WAR to past performers really is accurate. I suspect many of them are under valued because the game was so different in those days when relievers did not bail out the starter every game.