Ray’s Ramblings: Who is the Best Pitcher in Baseball?

I recently posed a very simple question on my Twitter account (@TheRayFlowers) asking – Who is the best pitcher in baseball? There was no qualifier, no description, just a simple question for folks to answer. The results were not exactly what I expected, though the arguing was. I will get to that in a moment, but first, here is how the poll played out.

There were three pitchers named and the leader was obviously Max Scherzer. He’s HOF bound, signed a ginormous contract with the Mets, and though his workload was down last season, he pretty much pitched as well as he ever has, and that is saying a ton given his monumental career.

Then we had a fourth option – OTHER.

Early on in the voting, OTHER was languishing in 4^th, but “Other” made a late push as folks really started to hone in on one guy who wasn’t listed. Before we get to that guy, here are some of the names that folks chose to list as a write-in.

Shane Bieber dominated the previous two seasons, but he made just 16 starts last season due to injury with a three season high in WHIP if 1.21.

Walker Buehler threw 207.2 innings, a career best, as he made the leap into the elite. Went 16-4 with a 2.47 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and more than a K-per-inning.

Max Fried has a great curveball and dominated late on his way to a 14-7 record, 3.04 ERA and 1.09 WHIP, his second year in a row with that number.

Shohei Ohtani posted a 1.09 WHIP, 29.3 K-rate and went 9-2 in 23 outings.

Kool-Aid man got a write in vote, though I’m not sure if I should list him as K or A since I’m using alphabetical order?

Chris Sale made nine starts last season, his only outings in two years, coming back from Tommy John surgery. He went 5-1 with a 3.16 ERA, 1.34 WHIP and more than a punchout an inning though his velocity was down a bit.

Ranger Suarez posted a 1.36 ERA and 1.00 WHIP last season with a punchout an inning though he made only 12 starts on the season.

Zack Wheeler has been good for years, but he did have a breakout last season with 14 victories, a 2.78 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and 247 punchouts. He led baseball with 213.1 innings and was second in fWAR behind Burnes (7.5 to 7.3).

Of course, all those names don’t add up to the guy with the most write in votes, and the fella that I can only assume was the impetus for the vast majority of write-in votes – not all but the majority – was Jacob deGrom.

Plenty of folks berated me for not listing deGrom in the original poll. Why didn’t I? Here are some reasons.

1 – The question asked had no qualifiers. It wasn’t fantasy centric, but you could have answered it that if you wanted. The question was meant to simply ask who the best was. There was an OTHER option if you felt anyone was worth noting other than the three guys I listed, and I even encouraged people to tell me who the write in was in the poll. I wish Twitter allows for more than four slots in a poll, but it doesn’t.

2 – Should guys that missed half the season last year – like Bieber and deGrom – be up for consideration as the best? As many folks noted in the comments, being on the field is kinda important to the question. Others responded that whether or not a guy makes 16 or 32 starts the best is the best, regardless of workload.

3 – For what it is worth, the fantasy angle seems to be decidedly against deGrom being the best. Of course, the outlook there is different, workload matters and folks are only looking at one season, but don’t you find it interesting that deGrom ADP at the NFBC is barely inside the top-25 overall right now and he’s 8^th at the pitcher spot, or seventh if you remove Ohtani (who is also hitter eligible in NFBC)? According to the fantasy community, deGrom clearly isn’t a leading option to be the best pitcher in baseball in 2022, so clearly that group of folks do not believe he’s the best pitcher in baseball. 

4 – I find it interesting that not a single write in vote, I’m removing Suarez from this point because he was certainly added based upon his work as a starting pitcher last season, was for a reliever. I would have thought someone would have said – Josh Hader. Perhaps if the question was – Who is the most dominant pitcher in baseball Hader would have gotten some votes? I mean, dude has a 44.4 K-rate and a 0.85 WHIP in his five-year career, and those are numbers that we just don’t see in baseball history. In fact, amongst all pitchers in the history of the game, who have thrown 250-innings, Hader ranks 1^st in K/9 (15.36), 1^st in K-rate (44.4) and 1^st in WHIP (0.85). Not a single vote though.
*NOTE: I did get one vote for Hader well after the voting was closed, so Josh F. was on the Hader case.

5 – I find it amusing that so many folks get so offended and butt-hurt when someone dares to ask a question. Multiple people went at me hard on Twitter because I dared to ask this question and somehow did not include deGrom as one of the three options. By the way, if the answer was so obviously deGrom, why wasn’t OTHER rewarded with a much higher vote total? Makes ya wonder a bit, don’t it?

6 – A moment on deGrom and some of my personal thoughts.

• I was not, as I’ve been accused by multiple people, trying to “stir the pot” by asking the question without directly naming deGrom as one of the options (see point #5 above). If you can read this piece and not understand why he wasn’t one of the top-3, I will never convince you of the validity of leaving him out of the discussion.
• I think it is easy to argue that, based on performance, deGrom is the best pitcher in baseball. Easy. Just look at the last four years: 1.94 ERA, 0.88 WHIP, 34.7 K-rate and 6.50 K/BB, not to mention the historic results of last season, albeit it in less than 95 innings pitched.
• I think saying he’s the best – IF HEALTHY – is a gigantic cop-out, and it is something that many folks said in their response to the poll. Would those same people say Byron Buxton is a top-5 player in baseball if healthy? Buxton is an elite baserunner, a stupendous defensive player and last season he had an OPS of 1.005 with the bat in his hands. I don’t think many, if any, would entertain Buxton in that conversation though, so why should we include deGrom in the pitching one? Isn’t being on the field part of the reason you are the best? Perhaps some would say – Buxton is hurt every year and deGrom was just hurt last season, and that is fair enough on the surface. At the same time, DeGrom missed time last year with lat/elbow/forearm/shoulder issues. That’s a whole lot of physical breakdown, all over his body. Further, on multiple occasions last year deGrom said he was fine, the team said he was fine and then he was still placed on the IL. When 33 year olds start to have arm issues is that a good thing? Does that usually stop and go away?
• The question comes down to have you read/interpret the question. Was deGrom the best pitcher in baseball last season among starting pitchers? If you are just focused on a per start basis, the answer is absolutely yes. Does it matter that he only threw half the innings from what was expected (less than half actually)? Does it matter that he had multiple arm issues – in different spots – in his age 33 year old season (he turns 34 in June)? Does it matter that he threw 100 pitches once all season and that was on April 23^rd? Does it matter that he was just 9^th in fWAR?

I have no issue with deGrom being your answer to the question, I wouldn’t put him there though because of his current health concerns, but I do find it interesting how polarizing the question appears to have been to so many despite the fact that there was absolutely no unanimity in the overall vote.