Pittsburgh Pirates: Five Best Starting Pitchers Since 1940

Number Three – John Candelaria

The Candy Man is a fairly underrated Pittbsurgh Pirates pitcher throughout their history. John Candelaria spent 12 of his 19 MLB seasons in a Pirate uniform. He, overall, was very similar to Drabek, but beat him out because of the large difference in innings pitched.

The Candy Man pitched in a grand total of 1873 innings with the Bucs. During his 12 year tenure, Candelaria pitched to the tune of a 3.17 ERA, 3.40 FIP, and 1.17 WHIP. Although he only had a 15.1% strikeout rate, Candelaria had a minuscule 5.7% walk rate and a 2.1 per 9 walk rate. He also let up home runs at a solid 0.82 per 9 rate.

In terms of era adjusted stats, Candy Man had an 84 ERA-, and 117 ERA+. His FIP- was 92. He, like Dock Ellis, also has a no-hitter under his belt. Just not in the same fashion as how Ellis got his. August 9th, 1976. Pitching against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Candelaria tossed a no-hitter as a 22-year-old. He did that against a line-up that included Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Dusty Baker, Bill Buckner, and Davey Lopes.

Candeleria also helped pitch the Pirates to a World Series Championship in 1979. In three starts that postseason he posted a 3.94 ERA and a 3.92 FIP in 16 innings of work.