Grantland getting in on Amaro bashing

[NDIrishGuy]

Grantland has an article on who would've been the consensus best pitcher for each year in baseball history. The writeup for Steve Carlton in 1972 was this:

"Seaver has the misfortune of having his worst professional season to this point in 1972, posting a 2.92 ERA that leaves him as a down-ballot Cy Young candidate. The unanimous winner there was Phillies ace Steve Carlton, who had been traded to Philadelphia in a contract dispute the previous winter, after making three All-Star teams as a young starter in St. Louis. All Carlton did was lead the National League in wins (27), ERA (1.97), complete games (30), innings pitched (346.1), and strikeouts (310). He even hit a home run. The Cardinals famously received Rick Wise in the deal, who was roughly a league-average starter in his two seasons with St. Louis. It seems strange to imagine the Phillies winning a trade, but Ruben Amaro Jr. was only 7 years old at this point and surely had only a small amount of influence on Philadelphia’s decision-making at the time"

 

[northeastphillyguy]

Wow! 30 complete games. A lot has changed since then. Plus the Phillies lost a ton of games that season and that makes his record even more remarkable!