The 100 Greatest in 100 Days #21 Lefty Grove

Next up at #21 is Philadelphia A’s and Boston Red Sox ace Lefty Grove. There is no question that Grove is on the shortlist of greatest pitchers of all time. Depending on what we emphasize, he might be the greatest. No pitcher led the league more in major statistical pitching categories. He led the league in ERA and adjusted ERA+ nine times, WAR for pitchers eight times, and winning percentage five times—all the most in history.  Grove won the 1931 AL MVP during this stretch with one of the great seasons ever recorded by a pitcher, going 31-4 and leading the league with a 217 ERA+. Grove’s 1931 season is the only one in history with at least 31 wins and fewer than 5 losses. Although the Cy Young Award didn’t exist during Grove’s career, there’s every reason to believe that he would’ve won six consecutive Cy Youngs from 1928-1933 which would be two more than the current record for consecutive Cy Youngs. During this stretch, he became the only pitcher in history with six consecutive seasons of at least 20 wins and no more than 10 losses. Grove compiled four seasons with at least 24 wins and fewer than nine losses which is the most all-time. No other player has more than two. There have only been four seasons with at least 28 wins and fewer than six losses in history, Grove has two of them. He’s the only pitcher in history with four consecutive seasons of at least 24 wins and no more than 10 losses. He’s the only pitcher in history with 300 wins and fewer than 150 losses, and he has the highest winning percentage in MLB history among pitchers with at least 240 career wins. He owns the highest ERA+ of all-time among pitchers with at least 3,000 career innings. Grove led the Athletics to three consecutive World Series appearances including back-to-back titles in 1929 and 1930. In 51 1/3 and World Series innings, he posted a 1.75 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP.

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Hi (hopefully) awesome reader! I welcome your comments. However, please be aware that I make all of my arguments using facts, statistics, and logic. Unfortunately, the average comment on a top-100 list goes something like this:

"UR StooPid. (Insert player) is trash. I've watched (pick a sport) for (pick a number of years) and (pick a player) is better than everyone. UR DUMB. HAHA6969."

–Some Jabroni

As cognitively stimulating as this species of comment is, it ends up being a missed opportunity to share a nuanced perspective. I reply to all comments that show even the most basic levels of thought and humility. The people who make the comments like the example above are under the assumption that the three seconds of thought that popped into their brains after reading the list is more than the 1000s of hours that I put into creating and maintaining the lists. I would be happy to defend any placement, or make an adjustment if one is warranted. If you are a jabroni, like the one above, then your comment will die in the lonely void of the unpublished comments section.

For everyone else, I look forward to your comments!

P.S. The theme of this site and the top-100 lists is that athletes from previous generations have historically been grossly overrated by sports publications in a way that is statistically improbable. Click on the "About" dropdown menu to see just how badly the average top-100 list disproportionately favors athletes from older generations when leagues were smaller, race quotas existed, and globalization wasn't a thing. Also, please consider reading "The History" section of the sport you are commenting on.

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