Year of the Pitcher: Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw's Historic Seasons

While Matt Kemp came up short in his bid for the Triple Crown this season, two pitchers completed the pitching Triple Crown. Both Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw led their leagues in wins, ERA and strikeouts.

However, like the hitting Triple Crown, the pitching Triple Crown has a stat that does a poor job at measuring pitching performance: the win.

One need only look at Felix Hernandez’s 2010 season or Russ Ortiz’s 2003 season. Since wins are such a poor measure of pitching performance (not to say ERA and Ks are perfect, but at least they are far more dependent on the pitcher), let’s replace wins with WHIP.

Then the question becomes whether Verlander and Kershaw achieved this version of the pitching Triple Crown and who has claimed that title in the past. Looking at the AL/NL era, let’s see what the numbers say:

Year	Name	Team	ERA	WHIP	K
1901	Cy Young	BOS	1.62	0.972	158
1905	Christy Mathewson	NYG	1.28	0.933	206
1908	Christy Mathewson (2)	NYG	1.43	0.827	259
1912	Walter Johnson	WSH	1.39	0.908	303
1913	Walter Johnson (2)	WSH	1.14	0.780	243
1915	Pete Alexander	PHI	1.22	0.842	241
1916	Pete Alexander (2)	PHI	1.55	0.959	167
1918	Walter Johnson (3)	WSH	1.27	0.954	162
1918	Hippo Vaughn	CHC	1.74	1.006	148
1919	Walter Johnson (4)	WSH	1.49	0.985	147
1924	Walter Johnson (5)	WSH	2.72	1.116	158
1924	Dazzy Vance	BRO	2.16	1.022	262
1928	Dazzy Vance (2)	BRO	2.09	1.063	200
1930	Lefty Grove	PHA	2.54	1.114	209
1931	Lefty Grove (2)	PHA	2.06	1.077	175
1934	Lefty Gomez	NYY	2.33	1.133	158
1939	Bucky Walters	CIN	2.29	1.125	137
1940	Bob Feller	CLE	2.61	1.133	261
1948	Harry Brecheen	STL	2.24	1.037	149
1963	Sandy Koufax	LAD	1.88	0.875	306
1965	Sandy Koufax (2)	LAD	2.04	0.855	382
1968	Bob Gibson	STL	1.12	0.853	268
1971	Tom Seaver	NYM	1.76	0.946	289
1973	Tom Seaver (2)	NYM	2.08	0.976	251
1986	Mike Scott	HOU	2.22	0.923	306
1995	Randy Johnson	SEA	2.48	1.045	294
1997	Roger Clemens	TOR	2.05	1.03	292
1999	Pedro Martinez	BOS	2.07	0.923	313
2000	Pedro Martinez (2)	BOS	1.74	0.737	284
2001	Randy Johnson (2)	ARI	2.49	1.009	372
2002	Pedro Martinez (3)	BOS	2.26	0.923	239
2005	Johan Santana	MIN	2.61	0.921	265
2006	Johan Santana (2)	MIN	2.77	0.997	245
2007	Jake Peavy	SDP	2.54	1.061	240
2011	Justin Verlander	DET	2.40	0.920	250
2011	Clayton Kershaw	LAD	2.28	0.977	248

*Bold for numbers that led all Major League Baseball

Not only did Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw pitch fantastically this pas season, they have done something rather rare. Only two other times has a season seen a pitcher win a Triple Crown, and (prepare Tim Kurkjian voice) the last time that happened was in 1924.

It is also the first time that baseball had two Triple Crown pitchers but did not have one achieve the Major League Triple Crown.

Both Verlander and Kershaw gave dominant pitching performances this season. They put themselves in a class with Walter Johnson, Sandy Koufax, Pedro Martinez and other pitching legends.

Many called 2011 "The Year of the Pitcher," and these two epitomized why this past season deserves that title.

This article comes from the blog 90% is Half Statistical.