Playing around with the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia, I was looking to run a list of Yankees starting pitchers who were great and who did it for many years in a row. So, I set the “Seasons With, Streak, Pitching” option for “Playing for the New York Yankees, most seasons in a row where RSAA >= 20 and GAMES STARTED >= 25.” Here’s the list that it generated:

Pitcher            Years   #
Red Ruffing	1935-40	6
Whitey Ford    	1962-64	3
Ron Guidry	1977-79	3
David Cone	1997-99	3
Russ Ford     	1910-11	2
Bob Shawkey	1919-20	2
Carl Mays      	1920-21	2
Herb Pennock	1924-25	2
Lefty Gomez	1934-35	2
Lefty Gomez	1937-38	2
Tiny Bonham	1942-43	2
Ed Lopat      	1949-50	2
Whitey Ford	1955-56	2
Jimmy Key      	1993-94	2
Andy Pettitte	1996-97	2
Roger Clemens	2000-01	2

Look at Red Ruffing here. Not only does he top the list – but, he blows everyone else away. This just may be another Yankees pitching record for Ruffing that no one will ever beat.

Seeing this, I decided to look at who were the top pitchers in baseball from 1935-1940. Also via the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia, here’s that list:

 Pitcher	         RSAA	  IP
 Lefty Grove	280	1296.0
 Red Ruffing	176	1455.0
 Tommy Bridges	159	1361.0
 Bob Feller	146	1106.0
 Lefty Gomez	139	1177.2
 Ted Lyons	133	1096.0
 Carl Hubbell	131	1416.0
 Bobo Newsom	115	1688.0
 Thornton Lee	113	1221.0
 Johnny Allen	108	1097.0

Ruffing is second to only the great Lefty Grove here. Any time you’re talking a positive pitching achievement and you’re second only to Lefty Grove, well, that’s not too shabby. (And, seeing Lefty Gomez here, on this list, confirms my former suggestion about the greatness of the Ruffing/Gomez one-two punch from 1930 through 1942 for the Yankees.)

Now, playing around with all these numbers got me wondering even more…in terms of RSAA per 9 innings pitched, who are the best Yankees pitchers, all-time, to date? Here’s that list:

 Pitcher	        RSAA	 IP	RSAA/9 IP
 J. Chamberlain	32	124.1	2.32
 Mariano Rivera	259	1023.2	2.28
 John Wetteland	29	125.0	2.09
 Tom Gordon	39	170.1	2.06
 Goose Gossage	103	533.0	1.74
 Steve Farr	29	169.0	1.54
 Jeff Nelson	42	311.0	1.22
 Sparky Lyle	93	745.2	1.12
 Ron Davis	31	291.2	0.96
 Spud Chandler	154	1485.0	0.93
 Whitey Ford	321	3171.0	0.91
 Lefty Gomez	242	2498.2	0.87
 Bobby Shantz	44	462.0	0.86
 Dave Righetti	107	1136.2	0.85
 Tiny Bonham	109	1178.0	0.83
 Jimmy Key	52	604.1	0.77
 Russ Ford	92	1112.2	0.74
 Carl Mays	88	1090.0	0.73
 Mike Stanton	36	448.1	0.72
 Hank Borowy	62	780.0	0.72
 Ed Lopat     	118	1496.2	0.71
 David Cone	72	922.0	0.70
 Marius Russo	53	681.0	0.70
 C-Ming Wang	48	628.2	0.69
 Red Ruffing	239	3168.0	0.68
 Monte Pearson	61	826.0	0.66
 Wilcy Moore	30	422.0	0.64
 Ron Guidry	166	2392.0	0.62
 Or. Hernandez	60	876.1	0.62
 Joe Bush     	53	783.0	0.61
 Urban Shocker	61	931.1	0.59
 Rudy May     	55	841.2	0.59
 Andy Pettitte	143	2212.0	0.58
 Bob Shawkey	157	2488.2	0.57
 Waite Hoyt	141	2273.0	0.56
 Mike Mussina	96	1553.0	0.56
 Johnny Murphy	61	989.0	0.56
 Roger Clemens	67	1103.0	0.55
 Steve Hamilton	29	485.1	0.54
 Allie Reynolds	99	1700.0	0.52
 Tom Sturdivant	29	524.0	0.50
 Lindy McDaniel	30	545.0	0.50
 David Wells	45	851.2	0.48
 Herb Pennock	115	2189.0	0.47
 Bill Bevens	31	643.0	0.43
 Ramiro Mendoza	32	699.2	0.41
 Vic Raschi	70	1538.0	0.41
 Tommy John	59	1367.0	0.39
 Joe Page     	30	780.0	0.35
 M.Stottlemyre	97	2662.0	0.33

Well, here, the bullpen guys top the list. That sort of makes sense – especially for the modern relief pitchers. If you’re good, hardly anyone is going to touch you up, that badly, when you’re throwing one inning and then you’re done.

It’s interesting to see Mike Mussina, David Wells, Roger Clemens, Orlando Hernandez and Andy Pettitte on this leader board. That was the Yankees 2002 starting rotation. Hey, they were pretty good, huh? Just makes it even more amazing that they (sans El Duque) got pounded by the Angels in the ALDS that season.