Who is the World's Best Pitcher?

It would be hard to argue against any of the Top Five as tops in the game, perhaps going down as far as Top Ten, After that it gets a little dicey and spicy. I imagine Matt Cain would have fallen onto this list had he pitched enough recently and maybe Lincecum had he not fallen off a cliff recently.

But "Oh well?  Right?  What are you going to do?  ~;::::::;( )">  ¯\_( )_/¯

Hey, I hear the Reds might be having a garage sale. See how much they're asking for Mike Leake. Hey, and maybe they throw in that Cuban Missile guy Chapman, right? It's not like they're using him much anyway, right? What have you got to lose?  ~;::::::;( )">  ¯\_( )_/¯

from billjamesonline.com

http://www.billjamesonline.com/polls_ratings/starting_pitcher_rankings/



Is Max Scherzer the World’s Best Pitcher?
June 29, 2015

In the 2015 Bill James Handbook, Bill James introduced his new formula to determine the World’s Best Pitcher at any given time. The system is based on Game Scores and weighs positive and negative recent performances more heavily than older performances.

As of the publication of the Handbook, Clayton Kershaw was the No. 1 pitcher in baseball by a substantial margin, and even in the Stat of the Week update from November that reflected Madison Bumgarner’s dominant playoff performance, Kershaw was still well clear of the field.
So far in 2015, Kershaw has been a little less dominant than his usual self. That combined with some excellent pitching performances from some of his peers, one in particular, has radically closed the gap:

World's #1 Starting Pitcher as of 6/29/2015
Rank	Started Season	Pitcher	Current Score
1	1	Clayton Kershaw	585.9
2	4	Max Scherzer	584.6
3	6	Chris Sale	557.7
4	2	Madison Bumgarner	553.8
5	10	Zack Greinke	553.1

Specifically, Max Scherzer has flown up the rankings this year thanks to his 1.79 ERA and his league-leading 9.3 strikeouts per walk. Following his no-hitter, Scherzer has pulled close to even with Kershaw.

Kershaw is still No. 1, but that title is at jeopardy for the first time since June 1, 2014, when Scherzer briefly held the title. Kershaw has been so dominant for so long, that the last starter other than Scherzer to have the title over him is Justin Verlander back in early 2013!

A change could happen as soon as Thursday when Scherzer and the Nationals take on the Braves.
The rankings are updated daily over at Bill James Online."

'via Blog this'


Here's the Top 50 (all aces), Mike Leake makes the list (hint,hint):

World's #1 Starting Pitcher Rankings: CURRENT RANKINGS
Rank	Started Season	Name	Current Score
1	1	Clayton Kershaw	585.9
2	4	Max Scherzer	584.6
3	6	Chris Sale	557.7
4	2	Madison Bumgarner	553.8
5	10	Zack Greinke	553.1
6	3	Felix Hernandez	547.4
7	5	David Price	544.1
8	9	Johnny Cueto	531.1
9	8	Cole Hamels	529.5
10	13	Corey Kluber	520.3
11	7	Jon Lester	504.8
12	45	Chris Archer	501.0
13	55	Dallas Keuchel	500.9
14	29	Francisco Liriano	499.8
15	42	Sonny Gray	499.2
16	12	Jordan Zimmermann	498.4
17	11	Adam Wainwright	493.3
18	20	Lance Lynn	489.2
19	17	James Shields	488.9
20	38	Yovani Gallardo	482.7
21	18	Jeff Samardzija	481.7
22	58	Shelby Miller	480.4
23	62	Jason Hammel	477.0
24	16	R.A. Dickey	476.9
25	63	Jake Arrieta	476.3
26	26	Phil Hughes	474.9
27	53	A.J. Burnett	474.9
28	94	Jacob Degrom	473.4
29	27	Jose Quintana	470.7
30	15	Jered Weaver	470.6
31	47	Dan Haren	468.6
32	52	Wei-Yin Chen	468.0
33	34	John Lackey	467.5
34	14	Stephen Strasburg	466.9
35	43	Anibal Sanchez	465.8
36	22	Gio Gonzalez	465.3
37	48	Tyson Ross	465.0
38	82	Gerrit Cole	464.7
39	49	Edinson Volquez	464.2
40	40	Mark Buehrle	463.6
41	70	Ubaldo Jimenez	459.4
42	41	Miguel Gonzalez	459.2
43	57	C.J. Wilson	458.0
44	19	Doug Fister	455.8
45	71	Clay Buchholz	453.7
46	46	Mike Leake	453.1
47	24	Chris Tillman	451.3
48	88	Scott Kazmir	450.7
49	31	Julio Teheran	447.8
50	50	Wade Miley	447.5