The Steve Carlton Award

In 1972, Steve Carlton had a season for the ages. The Philadelphia lefty started 41 games, completed thirty of them, and had eight shutouts. He struck out 310 batters and walked only 87 in 346 1/3 innings pitched. His ERA was a phenomenal 1.97 and his WHIP (walks plus hits over innings pitched) was a minuscule 0.993. He won 27 games, lost 10, and easily took home the Cy Young Award after the season.

Looking at the team he played for, however, makes his won-loss record even more impressive. The 1972 Philadelphia Phillies were a terrible team. They had the second-worst offense in the National League, scoring 3.22 runs per game. Only two players hit .280 with 200 or more at bats for the team. Only four players with 200+ at bats had an on base percentage above .300. With Carlton, the starting rotation was in the middle of the pack, without him they lagged behind the rest of the league. Obviously any team would struggle without their best pitcher, but the Phillies really had little else besides their ace lefty. The Phillies' bullpen wasn't much relief. All of this added up to an awful 59-97 record and last place in the NL East.

Consider that for a moment: Steve Carlton won 27 games on a team that only won 59 games. He won 45.8% of his team's games - a major league record since 1901. In fact, he's one of only ten pitchers since 1901 to win more than 40% of his team's games in a season and the only one to do so since 1922.

Note: for simplicity's sake, pitchers appearing for two or more teams have their wins for each team treated as if they were with that club all season. For example, if Johnny Goodarm wins 8 games for the 80-82 Pirates and 14 games for the 70-92 Cardinals, he's considered to have won 10% of the Pirates' games and 20% of the Cardinals' games rather than the percentage of the wins each team got with him on the roster. Unfair? Possibly, if the universe conspires against a great pitcher and he's stuck on multiple really bad teams. I can live with that.

Highest Percentage of Team's Wins By One Pitcher
1901-2008

Rank	Pitcher	Pitcher W-L	Team	Team W-L	W%
1	Steve Carlton	27-10	1972 Philadelphia Phillies	59-97	45.8
2	Ed Walsh	40-15	1908 Chicago White Sox	88-64	45.5
3	Jack Chesbro	41-12	1904 New York Highlanders	92-59	44.6
4	Noodles Hahn	22-19	1901 Cincinnati Reds	52-87	42.3
5	Cy Young	33-10	1901 Boston Americans	79-57	41.8
6	Joe Bush	15-24	1916 Philadelphia Athletics	36-117	41.7
7	Cy Young	32-11	1902 Boston Americans	77-60	41.6
8	Eddie Rommel	27-13	1922 Philadelphia Athletics	65-89	41.5
9	Red Faber	25-15	1921 Chicago White Sox	62-92	40.3
10	Walter Johnson	36-7	1913 Washington Senators	90-64	40.0

As I mentioned before, Carlton started 41 games in 1972. Only three of the pitchers on this list besides Carlton wound up with fewer than 41 decisions in those seasons. That makes Carlton seem even more out of place on the list.

To really show how out there Carlton's 1972 season is, we should look at the same list but with more recent pitchers. Here are how pitchers since expansion in 1961 stack up:

Highest Percentage of Team's Wins By One Pitcher
1961-2008

Rank	Name	Pitcher W-L	Team	Team W-L	W%
1	Steve Carlton	27-10	1972 Philadelphia Phillies	59-97	45.8
2	Gaylord Perry	24-16	1972 Cleveland Indians	72-84	33.3
3	Nolan Ryan	22-16	1974 California Angels	68-94	32.4
4	Phil Niekro	21-20	1979 Atlanta Braves	66-94	31.8
5	Larry Jackson	24-11	1964 Chicago Cubs	76-86	31.6
6	Randy Johnson	16-14	2004 Arizona Diamondbacks	51-111	31.4
7	Wilbur Wood	24-20	1973 Chicago White Sox	77-85	31.2
8	Bob Gibson	23-7	1970 St. Louis Cardinals	76-86	30.3
9	Randy Jones	22-14	1976 San Diego Padres	73-89	30.1
10	Denny McLain	31-6	1968 Detroit Tigers	103-59	30.1

Wow. Even in a list dominated by 1970's pitchers, Carlton blows everyone away. I figured there might be someone closer to 40% than 30%, but nope. With current five-man rotations meaning healthy pitchers make around 33 or 34 starts per year, it'll be hard for any pitcher to crack that top 10. A pitcher would have to win 20 games on a team that wins 66 games or less in a season. A 15-game winner would have to toil away on a team that loses 113 or more games. A pitcher would have to win 25 games on an 81-win team. Good luck.

But that doesn't mean we can't issue a Steve Carlton Award today. It simply goes to the pitcher who is credited with the highest percentage of his team's wins. It turns out the race this year went down to the wire:

2008 Steve Carlton Award Rankings

1. Cliff Lee, 22-3 for the 81-81 Indians, 27.2%
2. Brandon Webb, 22-7 for the 82-80 Diamondbacks, 26.8%
3. Tim Lincecum, 18-5 for the 72-90 Giants, 25.0%
4. Roy Halladay, 20-11 for the 86-76 Blue Jays, 23.3%
5. Edinson Volquez, 17-6 for the 74-88 Reds, 23.0%
6. Mike Mussina, 20-9 for the 89-73 Yankees, 22.5%
7. Aaron Cook, 16-9 for the 74-88 Rockies, 21.6%
8. A.J. Burnett, 18-10 for the 86-76 Blue Jays, 20.9%
9. Bronson Arroyo, 15-11 for the 74-88 Reds, 20.3%
10. Roy Oswalt, 17-10 for the 86-75 Astros, 19.8%

The only pitcher between Lee and Randy Johnson's 2004? Would you believe Paul Byrd in 2002? He went 17-11 for Kansas City, a team that finished 62-100.

One more fun fact: the highest percentage of team wins by a pitcher who won fewer than ten games is shared between Jing Johnson and Walt Kinney of the 1919 Athletics. They both went 9-15, each winning 25% of the Athletics' games on the year. When Mike Maroth went 9-21 for the 2003 Tigers, he was responsible for "only" 20.9% of his team's 43 victories.