New York Mets: Ranking Tom Seaver among MLB’s greatest pitchers
By Bill Felber
Career Adjusted ERA
This is decidedly Seaver’s weakest category.
Adjusted ERA is simply a pitcher’s earned run average adjusted for park and era-related factors. It is expressed on a scale where 100 equals the rating of an average pitcher.
Seaver won three ERA titles – 2.82 in 1970, 1.76 in 1971, and 2.08 in 1973 – and had a career 2.86 ERA. But he tended to pitch in neutral to pitcher-friendly parks – Shea Stadium and Riverfront Stadium – and he did so in eras that were considered neutral to pitcher-friendly. For that reason, his Adjusted ERA of 127 may be less impressive than Seaver’s actual career numbers.
In fact, he ranks only in a 10-way tie for 51st place all-time on the career Adjusted ERA list.
His peers at 127 include some familiar names: Kevin Brown, Gerrit Cole, Bob Gibson, Roy Oswalt, and Curt Schilling. Others at that level are old-timers Nig Cuppy, Stan Coveleski, Sal Maglie, and Jack Pfeister.
The leaders in career adjusted ERA+ is generally not parallel to the WAR or WPA leaders. They include Mariano Rivera (205), who has a vast lead on runner-up Kershaw (158). Those two are followed in the top five by Pedro Martinez (154), Jacob DeGrom, and Jim Devlin (both 150).
The top 10 is filled out by Lefty Grove, Walter Johnson, and Hoyt Wilhelm, with Dan Quisenberry, Ed Walsh, and Smoky Joe Wood in a three-way tie for ninth, 10th, and 11th.