Gibson and Carlton were without question the best pitchers of their era. Taking nothing away from Gibson's 1968 season, Steve Carlton's 1972 season is still the standard, and remains the single greatest season ever by an athlete in any sport. Try these numbers.....27 Wins, 30 complete games, 8 shutouts, 346 Innings Pitched, 1.97 ERA, 0.993 WHIP, 310 strikeouts, 1 hit batter. The league average ERA in 1972 was 3.59.
Gibson had the luxury of pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1968, who went on to win the NL Pennant. Carlton's 1972 Phillies were woeful, and won only 59 games the entire season, and finished sixth in their division. Carlton accounted for nearly 50% (27) of their wins himself.
Absolutely right, Maux. I'm a Sox fan but what Carlton did would be amazing just looking at the cold stats alone. But what puts it a cut above is the Phillies were 59-97 that year! He won nearly half of the teams entire total for the year. To have those numbers on a good team would be incredible. But to do that on a last place is amazing.
My vote goes to Pedro Martinez in 2000. He put up the following numbers in the midst of the steroid era, shorter fences, and more offensive output than in any other period in baseball.
18-6, 217 IP, 284/32 K/BB, 1.74 ERA, 0.737 WHIP.
Pedro's ERA placed him first in MLB, with the next 10 best ERA's coming from the National League. The next best ERA in the American League was Roger Clemens' mark of 3.70. Even the next best ERA, Kevin Brown's 2.58 was no where near Martinez's.
All due respect to Gibson's 1968 season, but there were five starters with sub-2.00 ERA's that year.
Same holds true for Carlton's 1972 season. Tremendous numbers, but his contemporaries were doing the same thing. That year, Louis Tiant's ERA was better than Carlton's. I think ultimately the best season honor belongs to Martinez.
