Tim Lincecum is surprisingly not on the list but this great photo is Creative Commons so I couldn’t help but use it. Pic by Dirk DBQ
In Major League Baseball, it takes more than one skilled player to field a championship contender. It takes talent all over the field at a variety of positions, both in terms of pitchers and hitters. While having a star pitcher and a star hitter at the same time is no guarantee of success, it does put your team in a position to have the type of season that fans will talk about for generations.
While it’s not quite the same as the NBA, where one standout duo can take a team from the cellar to playoff contention, it’s not uncommon for an outstanding season from a pitcher and position player duo to add 20 wins or more, according to Baseball Reference’s wins above replacement player metric. The number is designed to illustrate the difference between a star player and the type of player that would be considered “replacement level”—that is, one who could be easily signed as a midseason free agent or called up from the minor leagues.
The following is a list of the top pitcher/position player duos in San Francisco Giants history. Using wins above replacement, Stacker compiled a list of the seasons in franchise history that had a pitcher and hitter with the most combined value. Note that, for the purpose of capturing and examining the game’s “modern era”, only seasons after 1969 were used for this list.
#10. 1997 San Francisco Giants– Barry Bonds: 8.2 WAR (#5 position player in 1997)– Shawn Estes: 3.8 WAR (#29 pitcher in 1997)– Total: 12 WAR
#9. 1978 San Francisco Giants– Jack Clark: 5.9 WAR (#8 position player in 1978)– Bob Knepper: 6.3 WAR (#7 pitcher in 1978)– Total: 12.2 WAR
#8. 1989 San Francisco Giants– Will Clark: 8.6 WAR (#2 position player in 1989)– Scott Garrelts: 4 WAR (#28 pitcher in 1989)– Total: 12.6 WAR
#7. 1970 San Francisco Giants– Willie McCovey: 6.6 WAR (#10 position player in 1970)– Gaylord Perry: 7.6 WAR (#3 pitcher in 1970)– Total: 14.2 WAR
#6. 1993 San Francisco Giants– Barry Bonds: 9.9 WAR (#1 position player in 1993)– Bill Swift: 4.5 WAR (#17 pitcher in 1993)– Total: 14.4 WAR
#5. 2002 San Francisco Giants– Barry Bonds: 11.8 WAR (#1 position player in 2002)– Russ Ortiz: 2.8 WAR (#51 pitcher in 2002)– Total: 14.6 WAR
#4. 1969 San Francisco Giants– Willie McCovey: 8.1 WAR (#5 position player in 1969)– Juan Marichal: 7.8 WAR (#5 pitcher in 1969)– Total: 15.9 WAR
#3. 2003 San Francisco Giants– Barry Bonds: 9.2 WAR (#1 position player in 2003)– Jason Schmidt: 6.7 WAR (#6 pitcher in 2003)– Total: 15.9 WAR
#2. 2001 San Francisco Giants– Barry Bonds: 11.9 WAR (#1 position player in 2001)– Russ Ortiz: 4.1 WAR (#24 pitcher in 2001)– Total: 16 WAR
#1. 2004 San Francisco Giants– Barry Bonds: 10.6 WAR (#1 position player in 2004)– Jason Schmidt: 6.8 WAR (#5 pitcher in 2004)– Total: 17.4 WAR
This article originally appeared on Stacker. It has been re-published pursuant to a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.
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