Newhouser Saved the Tigers Lots of Runs in 1945-1946

In an earlier post, the ERA+ statistic was used to rank the top seasons for starters in the history of the Tigers.  We saw that right-hander Ed Siever's 197 ERA+ in 1902 was the highest ever for a Tigers starter.  However, he only pitched 188 innings that year and many other pitchers with high ERA+ marks had much heavier workloads.  In another recent post, it was shown that the Pitching Runs (PitchR) metric can be used to give a pitcher credit for quality and quantity of innings.  Using that metric gives us a different perspective of the best pitching seasons ever.

Table 1 below lists the top 15 single seasons for Tigers pitchers by Pitching Runs.  The first thing you might notice is that Sieiver falls out of the top 15.  In fact, his 1902 season drops all the way to 26th according to Pitching Runs.  The new leader is the great Hal Newhouser with 58 Pitching Runs in 1945.  Prince Hal's 53 Pitching Runs in 1946 ranks number two.  Given that major league rosters were depleted by World War II, his 1946 season is probably more impressive.

Table 1 - Tigers All-Time Single-Season Pitching Runs Leaders

Player	Year	IP	ERA	ERA+	PtchR
Hal Newhouser	1945	313	1.81	195	58
Hal Newhouser	1946	292	1.94	190	53
Dizzy Trout	1944	352	2.12	167	52
Justin Verlander	2011	251	2.40	170	47
Bobo Newsom	1940	264	2.83	168	46
Hal Newhouser	1944	312	2.22	159	43
Virgil Trucks	1949	275	2.81	148	43
Tommy Bridges	1936	294	3.60	137	42
Bobo Newsom	1939	246	3.37	146	42
Dizzy Trout	1946	276	2.34	157	39
Justin Thompson	1997	223	3.02	152	38
Denny McLain	1968	336	1.96	154	38
Art Houtteman	1950	274	3.54	132	38
Denny McLain	1969	325	2.80	135	38
Hal Newhouser	1948	272	3.01	145	37

Data source: Baseball-Reference.com

Newhouser's 1944 and 1948 seasons also make the cut giving him four of the top 15 seasons. Others appearing more than once on the list are Dizzy Trout in 1944 and 1946, Bobo Newsom in 1939 and 1940 and Denny McLain in 1968 and 1969.

Justin Verlander's 47 Pitching Runs in 2011 ranks fourth all-time.  If you want to exclude the World War II seasons, then it would rank as the second best season ever.