2013 A.J. Burnett vs 2015 Gerrit Cole: Who Had the Better Season?

In the 2010’s, the Pittsburgh Pirates got great results from A.J. Burnett in 2013 and Gerrit Cole in 2015. Between the two, who had the better season?

In the 2010’s, A.J. Burnett and Gerrit Cole easily had the two best seasons of the decade by a Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher. While each pitcher had multiple great seasons for the Pirates, Burnett’s best was in 2013 and Cole’s came in 2015. The question the becomes – which of the two seasons was better?

Now, on paper, you’d automatically think Cole. Better ERA, 19 wins, and finished 4th in Cy Young Award voting. However, pitcher wins and losses are an awful stat to use when comparing players. One player doesn’t win or lose a game, so why is it fair to judge a player based on how many wins or losses they were a part of? Cy Young voting is also very subjective, as many writers take into account the said pitcher win/loss record. After all, the 2015 Pirates scored 33 more runs than the 2013 Pirates. Well, if you dive in much deeper, you’d find there’s a good argument to be made that Burnett actually was better in 2013.

Today, we will compare the two seasons. Because you might actually find that between the two years, the old veteran, A.J. “Batman” Burnett may have had the better season in 2013 than the now richest pitcher in the history of baseball did in 2015.