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Is Madison Bumgarner the World's #1 Starting Pitcher?
Posted by John Dewan on Dec 16th 2015
November 14, 2014
Bill James has a ranking system called the World's #1 Starting Pitcher. Bill introduced the idea in an article on Bill James Online in September of 2011, and it has been fully explained and updated through the end of the regular season in the just-released 2015 Bill James Handbook. Bill James Online will have daily rankings of the World's #1 Starting Pitcher starting next season.
The system is straightforward. When a starter makes his major league debut, he begins with 300 points. From there, his rating will go up when he pitches well (based on Game Score). His rating goes down when he pitches poorly or doesn't pitch at all (including the offseason). Complete details of the system are available both in The Handbook and on Bill James Online.
The Handbook showed Clayton Kershaw as the World's #1 Starting Pitcher as of the end of the regular season. Here is the rest of that top 10:
| World's #1 Starting Pitcher September 28, 2014 |
||
| Player | Score | Rank |
| Clayton Kershaw | 626.0 | 1 |
| Felix Hernandez | 578.4 | 2 |
| Max Scherzer | 564.4 | 3 |
| Chris Sale | 562.5 | 4 |
| David Price | 560.8 | 5 |
| Johnny Cueto | 550.8 | 6 |
| Cole Hamels | 550.7 | 7 |
| Jon Lester | 550.5 | 8 |
| Adam Wainwright | 546.9 | 9 |
| Madison Bumgarner | 545.3 | 10 |
Madison Bumgarner is number 10 on this list. But wait. He just put on arguably the most amazing playoff pitching performance of all time. Here are the standings after the playoffs:
| World's #1 Starting Pitcher November 13, 2014 |
||
| Player | Score | Rank |
| Clayton Kershaw | 607.8 | 1 |
| Madison Bumgarner | 571.7 | 2 |
| Felix Hernandez | 571.2 | 3 |
| Max Scherzer | 559.8 | 4 |
| David Price | 554.3 | 5 |
| Chris Sale | 551.5 | 6 |
| Jon Lester | 545.3 | 7 |
| Cole Hamels | 541.3 | 8 |
| Johnny Cueto | 539.6 | 9 |
| Zack Greinke | 536.3 | 10 |
Bumgarner jumps all the way to number two! Kershaw had such an incredible regular season—and last six seasons, for that matter—he still has a substantial lead despite his disappointing postseason. However, Bumgarner’s exceptional October earned him more than 25 points, enough to pass the other eight pitchers who were in front of him when the season ended.