I plan on posting two articles today, so bear with me through my first congratulatory one for Tim Wakefield. Wake moved into 4th place on the Red Sox all-time win list with his 118th win, putting him ahead of Pedro Martinez and Smokey Joe Wood. Here is the top 10 list for the Sox:
- Roger Clemens/Cy Young 192
- Mel Parnell 123
- Luis Tiant 122
- Tim Wakefield 118
- Pedro Martinez/Joe Wood 117
- Bob Stanley 115
- Joe Dobson 106
- Lefty Grove 105
Cy Young (1901-1908)
WARP3: 68.9
PRAR: 652
Top 5 ERA+: 216, 194, 166, 148, 145
K: 1341
Roger Clemens (1984-1996)
WARP3: 112.7
PRAR: 1037.37
Top 5 ERA+: 211, 177, 175, 169, 164
K: 2590
Mel Parnell (1947-1956)
WARP3: 50.7
PRAR: 541
Top 5 ERA+: 157, 139, 137, 137, 135
K: 732
Luis Tiant (1971-1978)
WARP3: 49.4
PRAR: 508
Top 5 ERA+: 169, 132, 128, 125, 120
K: 1075
Tim Wakefield (1995-2005)
WARP3: 55.6 (thru 5/08/05)
PRAR: 548
Top 5 ERA+: 163, 157, 116, 115, 110 (2005 could bring him another good figure; current ERA of 3.18)
K: 1356
Pedro Martinez (1998-2004)
WARP3: 67.8
PRAR: 637
Top 5 ERA+: 285, 245, 212, 196, 189
K: 1683
Smokey Joe Wood (1908-1915)
WARP3: 38
PRAR: 318
Top 5 ERA+: 187, 180, 162, 152, 128
K: 986
Bob Stanley (1977-1989)
WARP3: 61.3
PRAR: 551
Top 5 ERA+: 158, 153, 149, 130, 125
K: 693
John Dobson (1941-1950, 1954)
WARP3: 41.1
PRAR: 455
Top 5 ERA+: 132, 123, 117, 114, 113 (twice)
K: 690
Lefty Grove (1934-1941)
WARP3: 53
PRAR: 533
Top 5 ERA+: 190, 185, 176, 160, 158
K: 749
As usual Win-Loss records don't tell the whole story; Clemens has the best long standing stats like WARP3 and K's, but Pedro had sheer dominance compared to the league that even an instant legend like Roger Clemens can't touch. Cy Young was great, but nowhere near Pedro and Clemens level, and Wakefield passes everyone on the list except Lefty Grove and the triple entente of Cy Young (who the best pitcher award is name after) Roger Clemens (who the pitchers award should be named after) and Pedro Martinez (arguably will retire greatest ever). So basically, it comes down to this:
Best Red Sox Pitchers in History. Lefty Grove did not pitch long enough or dominating enough to make this some kind of Square of Doom, but he merits attention for his Boston career.
- Roger Clemens
- Pedro Martinez
- Cy Young
- Lefty Grove
- Tim Wakefield
NOTE: Just so everyone knows, I checked the all-time Games Started, Innings Pitched, Strikeout, and various other all-time Sox lists in order to see if anyone slipped under the radar. For the most part, it looks as if the ten best Red Sox pitchers in history are most of the ones you see before you on this list; if someone is better than Dobson or Stanley, they definitely do not crack into the top 5, or even top 7 (Wood and Tiant follow Wake in the listings from what I see).
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