Pittsburgh Pirates: Five Best Starting Pitchers Since 1940

Since 1940, the Pittsburgh Pirates have had many talented starting pitchers. But out of all of them, who were the five best?

While the Pittsburgh Pirates history of starting pitchers is not as deep and rich as their history of hitters is, the team has only had two Cy Young Award winners after all, they have still had many starting pitchers who were some of the best of their era. This includes pitchers such as Babe Adams, Jesse Tannehill, and Sam Leever. Even their recent postseason appearances in the mid-2010s was driven by some of the best pitching staffs in the National League.

But comparing pitchers from different eras is way harder than comparing batters from different eras. The deadball era makes things a bit fuzzy. Due to that, this top five list will be done a bit differently from the others that have come before it.

So today, let’s go over the top five Pittsburgh Pirates pitchers from 1940 onward. Like I do with all these lists, I will be putting an emphasis on era adjusted stats like ERA+, FIP- and ERA-. I will also take into account how many innings a pitcher has pitched with the Pirates, and weigh that accordingly. So, without further ado, let’s get into number five.