All-Time Top Twenty Tigers Pitchers by WAR

Last week, I looked at the all-time top 20 Tigers position players based on Sean Smith's WAR database. This week, I'll present the pitchers based only on their time with the Tigers (Table 1).

Wins Above Replacement (WAR) for pitchers is based mostly on innings pitched, strike outs, walks and home runs.

The Tigers pitchers are less impressive than the batters as the number one hurler, Hal Newhouser (55.3 WAR) would have finished only 8th on the position player list. Newhouser is followed by Tommy Bridges (50.7), Mickey Lolich (44.2), Dizzy Trout (42.2) and Jack Morris (34.5). There is one current Tiger on the list with Justin Verlander coming in 18th at 17.2. Note that I took Verlanders 2009 WAR from FanGraphs as Smith's database only goes up through 2008 at this point.

Table 1: Top Twenty Tigers Pitchers by WAR

Rank	Pitcher	WAR
1	Hal Newhouser	55.3
2	Tommy Bridges	50.7
3	Mickey Lolich	44.2
4	Dizzy Trout	42.2
5	Jack Morris	34.5
6	Frank Lary	28.9
7	Bill Donovan	28.6
8	John Hiller	28.2
9	Jim Bunning	27.9
10	Virgil Trucks	26.7
11	Hooks Dauss	26.7
12	George Mullin	26.0
13	School Boy Rowe	23.3
14	Fred Hutchinson	22.7
15	Ed Killian	19.3
16	Earl Whitehill	19.1
17	Denny McLain	18.9
18	Justin Verlander	17.2
19	Bobo Newsome	17.2
20	Al Benton	16.5