Louis Addeo-Weiss
With the Washington Nationals victory over the Houston Astros in game 7 of the World Series, baseball in the 2010s had officially come to a close.
Daniel Hudson’s biting slider that struck out Houston left fielder Michael Brantley wound up being the final pitch thrown during the decade which 7 different teams crowned World Champions.
And with the end of that respective series, and continuing with the theme of this series, we’ll be dissecting and comparing the pitching of this now-ended decade with those who had come before.
Thus far, we’ve compared the likes of Clayton Kershaw’s dominance to that of Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson.
Today, we’ll look at a decade that predates the times before each of these men stepped foot on a pitching rubber – the 1920s.
Pitching Leaders (1920-29) Per Baseball-Reference Play Index
| Rk | Player | WAR | ERA | ERA+ | FIP |
| 1 | Dazzy Vance* (2053.2) | 50.1 | 3.10 | 130 | 3.05 |
| 2 | Pete Alexander(2415.1) | 47.7 | 3.04 | 130 | 3.48 |
| 3 | Red Faber(2364) | 46.1 | 3.34 | 121 | 3.62 |
| 4 | Eddie Rommel(2243.1) | 45.6 | 3.47 | 123 | 4.11 |
| 5 | Urban Shocker+(2148.2) | 44.8 | 3.34 | 125 | 3.71 |
| 6 | Herb Pennock(2313) | 40.2 | 3.44 | 116 | 3.60 |
| 7 | Eppa Rixey(2678.1) | 40.1 | 3.24 | 119 | 3.44 |
| 8 | Stan Coveleski(1933.2) | 39.1 | 3.20 | 127 | 3.57 |
| 9 | Burleigh Grimes(2792.2) | 38.3 | 3.52 | 112 | 3.72 |
| 10 | Jack Quinn(2042) | 38.1 | 3.50 | 119 | 3.54 |
() signifies innings pitched
*debuted 1922
+retired after 1928
The 1920s were a time of great offensive prowess, with the likes of Babe Ruth (216 OPS+, 102.3 WAR) and Rogers Hornsby (188 OPS+, 93.2 WAR) being the two standouts of the decade.
The trade of Babe Ruth to the Yankees following the 1919 season which saw the future Sultan of Swat hit a then-record 29 home runs, and his full-time transition into a position player role, ushered in the beginning of the live-ball era at the start of 1920.
Ruth’s 255 OPS+ that season would be the highest such mark during the 1920s and fourth-highest all-time, trailing only Barry Bonds thrice (259; 2001, 263; 2004, 268; 2002).
As evidenced by this, the 1920s saw 77 such individual seasons of hitters posting an OPS+ of 150 or higher.
As for the 2010s, which many have deemed a new era of great starting pitching given the aforementioned balance of pitching production, the decade, too, saw 77 cases of hitters posting an OPS+ of 150, with the benchmark being Bryce Harper’s 198-mark set in 2015.
While Harper OPS+ that season ranks 19th all-time, the fact that he didn’t eclipse 200 further cements the notion of just how great pitching was during this decade.
When looking at the chart above, we see that the decade’s top two pitchers, Dazzy Vance and Pete Alexander, pitched the decade in the National League.
Hornsby, respectively, hit .279 with a .361 slugging percentage against Vance from 1925-29 (matchup data only dates to 1925) over 76 plate appearances, while hitting .333 with a .563 slugging percentage against Alexander.
Data for Ruth is difficult to pit in the context of the decade given the fact that four of the pitchers in the top 10 according to WAR, pitched, at one point, for Ruth’s Yankee teams, as well as the fact that four other pitchers pitched in the National League.
Ruth, however, did fare well against the decade’s no.15 pitcher, the Philadelphia Athletics’ Lefty Grove, slashing .341/.407/.537 with 5 home runs over 91 plate appearances.
The separation in WAR between the no.1 and 10 pitchers is the lowest of any of the already examined eras. For instance, the difference between Kershaw and Felix Hernandez in total WAR from 2010-19 is 27, whereas the difference between Vance and no.10 Jack Quinn is a mere 12 WAR.
We also see, to the greatest extent thus far, the propensity for these pitchers to work extensively in relief, with the ten listed arms averaging 63.6 relief outings over the course of the decade.
Fast forward to the 2010s, and that number has shrunk to a mere 1.2 outings per starter. Of the 10 best pitchers by WAR during the 2010s, five of them, Strasburg, DeGrom, Greinke, Scherzer, and Verlander, all pitched exclusively as starting pitchers.
Ironically, despite the fairer balance in production during the 1920s, there occurred the same number of 8 WAR pitching seasons during the 2010s (13), as were during the 1920s.
However, the 2010s saw more repeat offenders of the 8 WAR season, 3, including Roy Halladay (8.6; 2010, 8.8; 2011), Justin Verlander (8.6; 2011, 8.1; 2012), and Corey Kluber (8.3; 2014, 8.1; 2017), than the two who did so during the 1920s.
The two pitchers who posted multiple 8 WAR seasons during the decade included Dazzy Vance (10.4; 1924, 10.1; 1928) and Red Faber (11.3; 1921, 9.3; 1922).
