I’ve been meaning to write something about this for quite a while, and thankfully all the Mitchell Report madness has given impetus to this very post. Just last week, Pedro Martinez proclaimed he dominated the Steroids Era cleanly, and added that he’s damn proud of it. I’ll gladly note that he’s the second Hall of Famer to recently say he dominated the Steroid Era cleanly. While I haven’t gone through every outstanding individual season of all-time, I have a pretty solid foundation for the history of the game. That being said, given the context of the era in which Pedro peaked, his 1999 season could very well be the most dominant season in the history of the game. Allow me to make my argument.
In 1999, names like Rafael Palmeiro, Juan Gonzalez, Jason Giambi, and Ivan Rodriguez dominated the offensive categories, just to give you some context. In 1999, Pedro Martinez went 23-4 in 29 starts. He threw five complete games over 213.3 innings, walking a measly 37 batters the entire season. Oh yeah, he also set a career high with 313 strikeouts — a nice 8:1 ratio for those of you keeping score at home. In those 213.3 innings, a year in which 2,635 home runs were belted (the 2nd most in AL history according to my calculations), Pedro gave up just nine of them. His ERA was only 2.07, almost three full runs lower than the league average of 5.02 (also the 2nd highest in AL history according to my calculations).
The second closest pitcher to Pedro in ERA was David Cone at 3.44, almost a run and a half lower. Pedro had a 2.07. Three players with ERAs in the 4’s made it in the Top 10 of the league that year. Get that? An ERA in the 4’s meant you were having a really good season. Pedro’s WHIP was 0.92 — the next closest wasn’t even sub 1.2 — it was Eric Milton at 1.22. Pedro struck out over 13 batters per nine innings pitched. The next closest was Chuck Finley at not quite eight and a half.
I remember watching Pedro pitch that year and knowing it was special. It was news only when he lost; you always expected him to win that year. Pedro’s pitching prowess was unrivaled during his prime. Some people may say other pitchers had more dominant seasons, or that certain batters had more impressive years. Rather than fawn over the way Barry Bonds cartoonishly made a mockery of the record books in his super-human (steroids-aided) form of 2001 and 2002, I’d rather marvel at the 5′11″ 170lb specimen of a man who made all those hulking roiders look foolish like nobody else did.
If you have a suggestion as to what the best individual season was in history, please feel free to add it and defend it in the comments. I’m going with Pedro Martinez in 1999.
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Doug Drabek, 1990.
Kidding, I would have to agree with Pedro in 99.
It was either Jeremy Bonderman or Mike Maroth for the Tigers. If I pitched for that team in 2003, i would of lost 35 games easy-and they would of left me out there for the experience
agree with pedro’s season though
You kids can’t see past things that happened in your lifetimes. The
all-time best pitching season is:
Charley Radbourn
678 innings
73 starts
73 complete games
59 wins
12 losses
11 shutouts
441 strikeouts
1.38ERA
oh yea, 1 save
Read it and weep, whippersnappers.
By the way, if you want someone more current…
Ron Guidry
25-3
278IP 248K
1.74era
16 complete games
Al Spalding
55 wins
5 losses
575IP
1.52era
Great post, Larry. I totally agree that Pedro in 1999 was the best season of all time.
Lol on Charley Radbourn 1884. Dude was a beast. 59-12??
Babe Ruth, either 1919 or 1920 could be a close one in terms of context as he hit more homeruns than any other team in baseball in both of those seasons and went on to re-invent the game.
Ty Cobb 1911
146games
.420 avg 14strikeouts
147 runs
127 rbi
83 sb
47 doubles
24 triples
8 hr
The guy struck out once every 10 games. That’s insane. I’ll take that anytime over 50 homers.
Pedro’s season was surely one of the tops if not the best. A couple of others come to mind:
Steve Carlton pitcher 1972 Phillies – went 27-10 for a last place team, dominated NL stats, and won a higher percentage of his team’s sins than any other pitcher in history.
Stan Musial hitter 1948 Cardinals – led the NL in nine different batting categories. Missed the HR title by one homer, but led in hits, doubles, triples, BA, runs, RBI, total bases, etc. – BA was .376