Pittsburgh Pirates: Five Best Starting Pitchers Since 1940

Number One – Bob Veale

Bob Veale might just be the most underrated Pittsburgh Pirates’ starting pitcher of all time. During his prime, he may have been a top 10 starter in the league, but never received a single Cy Young vote. He did, however, earn two All-Star Game nods.

Veale has 1868.2 innings under his belt as a Pittsburgh Pirate. Overall, he has a 3.06 ERA, 2.76 FIP and 1.32 WHIP from 1962 up until the beginning of 1972. Veale was never a big control pitcher. He had a 10.6% walk rate, but he was the original Pirate strikeout machine. Veale had 200+ strikeouts four different times in his career. A 20.8% strikeout rate might not seem too impressive today when the league average is 23%, but back in the 1960’s and 1970’s, that was elite.

Despite never getting a single Cy Young Award vote in his career, Veale, three separate times, pitched in over 220 innings, and had an ERA under 3. That also includes a 2.05 ERA in 1968. The big reason for this is Veale never racked up that many wins. It just seemed Veale never got run support even though he had bats like Willie Stargell, Roberto Clemente, Matty Alou, and Don Clendon backing him up. While he may not have deserved the Cy Young any of those years, Bob Veale never getting a single vote because of a reason like pitcher wins/losses is criminal.

Overall, Veale has a career 86 ERA- and 83 FIP-. His FIP- is the best mark of any Pirate pitcher since 1940. He also has a solid 113 ERA+ with the Pirates.

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