Best Fantasy Baseball Seasons Ever: Pitchers

Paul Skenes, Chris Sale, Tarik Skubal – all were amazing in 2024. Taking nothing away from any of the three, there efforts were nowhere near some of the best pitching seasons of all-time in the fantasy game. I could go back to 1990, or maybe even 1980, to limit the answers to the actual era of fantasy baseball. That seems slightly boring to me. Instead, I’m going way back, all the way to 1901, long before fantasy baseball was even a thing (neither was the personal computer, the internet or the television). So yes, I’m cheating – but it’s my article and my rules. I’m also not going to worry about putting the numbers in context of the season played either. Whether we are looking at 2024 or 1968, I’m just going to look at the raw numbers that were produced. Speaking of the numbers, I’m going to focus solely on the 5×5 game as well.

With that, let’s put us together the All-Time Fantasy Baseball pitching squad.

Here is a link to the piece on hitters.

PITCHERS

*NOTE: Since we aren’t taking into account era, and merely are concerned with the overall 5×5 numbers produced by a pitcher, the hurlers from a hundred years ago are tough to ignore since they posted their HOF level ratios over massive innings pitched totals. If someone is throwing 350+ innings with a 0.85 WHIP that gives them a massive advantage over someone else who has a 0.85 mark over 190-innings. Note how all the old timers also picked up a handful of saves as well to bring even more value to the fantasy party.

STARTING PITCHER: Ed Walsh in 1908 (40-15, 6 SV, 1.42 ERA, 0.86 WHIP & 269 Ks in 464 IP)
A HOFamer who was at the peak of his talents in 1908. Wash led the league in wins, games (66), starts (49), complete games (42), shutouts (11), innings and strikeouts. If you were in a league with bonus points for milestone efforts, his season would be even better (if that is possible). So amazing was his effort that he had more complete games in 1908 than any active pitcher in baseball has ever made starts in a season. Hell, Walsh was even been credited with six saves in his effort that also include a 4.80 K/BB ratio and a 1.42 FIP. Think of it. He had a 0.86 WHIP in 464 innings whereas only four pitchers in baseball threw 200-innings in 2024 and non of them even threw 210 innings.

STARTING PITCHER: Christy Mathewson in 1908 (37-11, 5 SV, 1.43 ERA, 0.83 WHIP & 259 K in 390.2 IP)
This HOFamer is the greatest pitcher in Giants history, and every best-ever list has him as a top-10 hurler. Mathewson led the league in wins, ERA, strikeouts, WHIP, GS (44), CG (34), SO (11) and did so in more than 390 innings. This was the best season of his career, though he posted a 1.14 ERA in 1909. Over an entire decade, from 1905-14, an average Mathewson season was 26-11, 1.96 ERA, 1.02 WHIP with 155 strikeouts over 314 innings, and from 1907-12 he led the league in FIP every time with an overall mark of 1.92 and an ERA+ of 162 (ERA+ is the players performance compared to the league average, and it’s also park adjusted).

STARTING PITCHER: Mordecai Brown in 1909 (27-9, 7 SV, 1.31 ERA, 0.87 WHIP & 172 Ks in 342.2 IP)
Known as Three-Finger Brown after an accident injured his hand, this HOF lefty was an elite ratio performer for years an over the course of 14 seasons and 3,172.1 innings Brown posted a 2.06 ERA and 1.07 WHIP. In 1909 he won two games less than in 1908, and in fact, his WHIP was also slightly higher (it was 0.84 in 1908). Still, he dropped the ERA (he was even lower in 1906 with an absurd mark of 1.04 over 277.1 frames), threw 30 more innings and jumped the punchouts by 49 in 1909. His ERA+ was also 33 points better at 193. Brown led the league in victories, games (50), CG (32), saves and innings. Yes. He led the league in complete games and saves.

STARTING PITCHER: Walter Johnson in 1913 (36-7, 2 SV, 1.14 ERA, 0.78 WHIP & 243 Ks in 346 IP)
This HOFamer, known as the Big Train, won the MVP twice the pitching Triple Crown three times. He had two seasons with more than 300 punchouts, but his overall games was never better than in ‘13 when he was at the height of his powers. Johnson’s 0.78 WHIP is the third best mark ever, second best since 1883, and his 1.14 ERA is 5^th best ever, and fourth best since 1881. Put those ratio numbers in the context of 346 innings and it’s simply not debatable that he belongs on this team.

STARTING PITCHER: Sandy Koufax in 1965 (26-8, 2 SV, 2.04 ERA, 0.86 WHIP & 382 K in 335.2 IP)
This HOF was coming off going 44-10 with a 1.82 ERA and 0.90 WHIP in 1963-64, but the best was still to come. In 1965 Koufax used his blazing fastball, and one of the best curveballs ever thrown, to dominate opponents like few who had ever toed the rubber on the way to an epic season that won him the Cy Young award with the second highest single season strikeout total ever (post1 890 that is).   Koufax threw 27 CGs to lead the league in ‘65, and that stupendous 0.86 WHIP was over a massive, and league leading, innings pitched total. Koufax also allowed a career low 5.8 hits per nine innings and his 5.38 K/BB ratio was the best of his storied career as well. Unfortunately, his career ended at age 30 due to an arm injury after the 1966 season.

RELIEF PITCHER: Eric Gagne in 2003 (2-3, 55 SV, 1.20 ERA, 0.69 WHIP & 137 Ks in 82.1 IP)
This was year two of three-in-a-row with exactly 82.1 innings pitched for Gagne. He also had at least 45 saves in all three years, and the 55 in 2003 was the second year in a row he saved more than 50. Gagne won the Cy Young award as he racked up the third most saves ever in a season in 2003 as he also racked up a K/9 rate of 15, unheard of at the time, and that insanely sick WHIP was a stunner too. Pretty hard to come up with a more dominant relief effort than this one.

RELIEF PITCHER: Edwin Diaz in 2018 (0-4, 57 SV, 1.96 ERA, 0.79 WHIP & 124 Ks in 73.1 IP)
Diaz posted the second most saves ever for an NL hurler and did it with a WHIP that was vastly superior to the other man who posted 57 saves – Bobby Thigpen has a 1.04 mark in 1990 – and to Francisco Rodriguez as well (an all-time record 62 saves in 2008 but with a 1.29 WHIP). Diaz also punched out 15.2 batters per nine, even higher than Gagne, and really, the only negative mark for Diaz was the win-loss record.

RELIEF PITCHER: Dick Radatz in 1964 (16-9, 29 SV, 2.29 ERA, 1.03 WHIP & 181 Ks in 157 IP)
Accomplished while a Red Sox, this was the second season in a row that Radatz won 15-games with at least 20 saves (he is the only man to have done that) as Dick made 79 appearances on the season while leading the league in saves. He also struck out a massive, in 1964, 10.4 batters per nine innings on his way to a top-10 AL MVP finish. In fact, this was the second year in a row he accomplished that feat (he was 5^th in 1963). Interesting, for the rest of his career he won 12 games with 44 saves, but for the first three seasons of his career he was dynamic.

RELIEF PITCHER: Mike Marshall in 1974 (15-12, 21 SV, 2.42 ERA, 1.19 WHIP & 143 K in 208.1 IP)
You wanna talk about a bulk reliever? The Ray’s didn’t invent the idea, but regardless, the template was produced in the 70’s by this man. Marshall won the Cy Young Award for his efforts in ’74, and he was also third in the NL in the MVP vote. Despite not making a single start, Marshall still threw more than 200-innings. Think about that for a moment. Then think about it again. Marshall made 106 appearances on the season, the most ever, and the man finished 83 games in the first of two career efforts that he finished more than half the team games played (84 in 1979). You could make the case that his 1973 effort was just as good as he won 14 games with 31 saves that season.