Best pitchers in the world

There have been some spirited debates over the first five seasons about who the best pitchers in Gleeman World are, and the Cy Young balloting has frequently been contentious. So, what better way to while away the offseason than trying to figure out who the best pitchers in the history of the world have been.

Here are the top dozen pitchers over the first five seasons, from No. 12 up to No. 1.

12. Brian Murata has easily been the best closer in the world. He's converted 177 of 193 save opportunities (92 percent) while posting a 2.04 ERA and 0.96 WHIP in 330 innings. A three-time Fireman of the Year and four-time All-Star, Murata has perfect control and dominates hitters on both sides of the plate. He doesn't throw hard, but instead relies on an excellent sinker/curveball combination.

Murata's worst season was in Season 1, when he posted a 2.52 ERA and only saved 29 games. Since then, he's averaged 37 saves a season with a 1.94 ERA. And although the Yankees have struggled in the postseason, it hasn't been because of Murata. He's yet to allow a run in 11 playoff innings.

11. Ruben Crespo doesn't have the sparkling ERA of some of the pitchers ahead of him on this list, but his ability to soak up innings has been a great value to the Minnesota Fatboys. Crespo is 98-63 with a 4.08 ERA in 1,401 innings. He's topped 270 innings every season except for Season 4, when an injury cost him about a month and he still made 40 starts.

Crespo's best performance came in Season 2, when he went 21-11 with a 3.24 ERA in 280 innings. The three-time All-Star also gets points for spending his entire career in a slight hitter's park in the high-offense American League. He has struggled in the postseason, going 4-8 with a 5.21 ERA in 102 innings, although he had a 3.78 ERA while helping the Fatboys win the Season 5 World Series.

10. Two seasons ago, it would have been laughable to think John Carroll would be this low on the list, but he's only gone 29-23 with a 3.71 ERA in Seasons 4 and 5. For his career, he's 76-45 with a 3.45 ERA in 1,128 innings. Those still-excellent numbers are mitigated somewhat by the fact that the two-time All-Star's played for an NL team in a pitcher's park all five seasons.

Carroll was in AA at world creation but reached the majors by the end of Season 1. In Seasons 2 and 3, he went 42-17 with a 3.14 ERA, winning the Cy Young award in Season 3. In his only postseason experience, Carroll went 1-1 with a 1.69 ERA in 16 innings in Season 2.

9. Jay Cosby has never won more than 15 games in a season, but that's due largely to the quality of some of the offenses he's pitched for. In his career, he's 62-54 with a 3.48 ERA in 1,145 innings, and he's almost certainly the best pitcher to have never won an award of any kind.

Cosby's been remarkably consistent, posting an ERA between 3.35 and 3.55 in four of five seasons, with Season 4's 3.79 ERA the worst of his career. He's been a hard-luck loser in the postseason as well, going 1-3 with a 3.48 ERA in 44 innings.

8. Gary Long is overshadowed on his own pitching staff, but there's no question he's one of the best in the league. The Season 1 Rookie of the Year is also a two-time All-Star who has gone 82-33 with a 3.58 ERA in 1,118 innings. He's also pitched his whole career in the AL, although his home park is beneficial to pitchers.

Long's best work came in Season 4, when he went 19-5 with a 2.81 ERA in 230 innings. He also gets extra credit for his postseason work, going 7-4 with a 3.20 ERA in 98 innings. He went 3-0 with a 1.54 ERA in 35 innings to help the New York Mets repeat as champions in Season 3.

7. Billy Ray Prince is definitely the pitcher on this list who's had the toughest circumstances for most of his career. Not only has he pitched in the AL all five seasons, but he's also spent 3.5 of those seasons toiling in the best hitter's park in the world. Still, he's managed to go 68-37 with a 3.45 ERA in 958 innings.

The two-time All-Star did his best work in Season 1, going 18-7 with a 2.78 ERA in 194 innings for the Mets. His postseason work has been spotty, as he did well in Seasons 1 and 5 while struggling in Seasons 3 and 4. Overall, he's 2-3 with a 4.07 ERA in 42 innings in the playoffs.

6. Haywood Towers might rank higher on this list if not for a debilitating injury in Season 3. Even without the injury, however, Towers just doesn't the arm to be a workhorse in the rotation. So while he's 65-28 with a stunning 2.72 ERA in his career, he's only managed to pitch 813 innings.

Towers has finished the season a sub-3.00 ERA three times, but Season 5 was by far his best effort and earned him his first All-Star appearance. He went 17-4 with a 2.04 ERA in 185 innings as opponents batted just .177 against him. As dominant as Towers has been in the regular season, he's been a postseason bust, going 2-1 despite yielding a 7.84 ERA in 20 innings.

5. While Towers simply never had the stamina or durability to pile up innings, Grover Rowand has struggled with injuries throughout his career, going on the DL in four of five seasons, including one stint on the 60-day DL. That's limited him to 827 career innings, but he's 71-27 with a 2.73 ERA and two Cy Young awards.

His first Cy Young came in Season 2, when he went 19-11 with a 2.68 ERA in 231 innings. He followed that up with his worst season as an injury limited him to 84 innings and his 3.52 ERA was the only time he's had an ERA above 2.90. Rowand bounced back in Season 4 to win another Cy Young by going 23-1 with a 2.19 ERA in 168 innings. He's been good, but not great, going 3-1 with a 3.79 ERA in 38 postseason innings.


4. Max Leary has overall numbers that stack up nicely with the top three on this list, but there's some reason to doubt that he's quite as good as them since his performance improved dramatically when he joined a team that plays in one of the best pitcher's parks in the world the last two seasons. Leary is 67-52 with a 3.16 ERA in 1,115 innings.

He was a very good pitcher the first three seasons, and that prompted Oklahoma City to give him a massive contract that guaranteed him more than $60 million over three seasons and as much as $76.4 million over four seasons. The Twins haven't been disappointed so far, as he's gone 37-21 with a 2.82 ERA in 492 innings while make the All-Star team both seasons. In his only trip to the playoffs, Leary went 1-0 with a 1.42 ERA in 19 innings in Season 4.

3. Red Wainhouse might be No. 1 on this list had he not been mismanaged his first two seasons or gotten hurt in Season 5. Even with those problems, however, he's 82-40 with a 3.11 ERA in 1,044 seasons. Wainhouse was under-appreciated and under-used his first two seasons, getting traded for very little by Nashville and then being used primarily as a reliever by Indianapolis.

When Indy let him walk after Season 2, the Mets jumped at the chance to sign him and he rewarded them with back-to-back Cy Young seasons. Wainhouse went 48-12 with a 2.96 ERA in 552 innings in Seasons 3 and 4. He's also been an excellent postseason pitcher, going 7-4 with a 2.78 ERA in 97 innings.

2. Vic Alfonzo has never won a Cy Young award and he's only made two All-Star teams, but that's partly because his teams have occassionally struggled to help him win games. The past two seasons, he's only gone 29-23 despite posting a 2.79 ERA in 490 innings.

For his career, Alfonzo is 82-44 with a 2.97 ERA in 1,202 innings. His 2.66 ERA in 254 innings in Season 5 was one of the best performances in Gleeman World history even though he still managed to lose 13 games somehow. Alfonzo's been just as good in the postseason, going 8-3 with a 3.03 ERA in 101 innings to help Milwaukee reach the World Series twice.

1. Don Masato is the complete package. A dominant pitcher, he has the stamina and durability to be a workhorse and he's been healthy enough to throw at least 240 innings every season. A two-time Cy Young winning and four-time All-Star, Masato is 109-32 with a 3.09 ERA in 1,275 innings. And although he doesn't have to face a DH in the NL, he has played in a home park that favors hitters.

Masato has three 20-win seasons and he's never won fewer than 18 games, and he's only posted an ERA above 3.25 once. He went 19-8 with a 2.48 ERA in 240 innings to earn the Cy Young in Season 1, and he was 25-3 with a 2.91 ERA in 256 innings to barely win his second in Season 5. Masato hasn't been quite as good in the postseason, going 7-7 with a 3.86 ERA in 142 innings. He did do his best to give Chicago a championship in Season 2, when he was 4-1 with a 2.47 ERA in 54 innings in the playoffs.