| Player | bWAR/IP | bWAR | IP | From | To | Age | SO | ERA | FIP | ERA+ | BB/9 | SO/9 | SO/BB |
| Hal Newhouser | .0214 (8th) | 57.3 (2nd) | 2672 (2nd) | 1939 | 1950 | 18-29 | 1670 (9th) | 2.96 (34th) | 3.12 (43rd) | 134 (8th) | 3.88 (167th) | 5.63 (68th) | 1.45 (128th) |
I couldn’t get a photo of Hal Newhouser off Getty Images, so this is the next best thing. If you don’t get it, go watch Malcolm in the Middle.
Hal Newhouser probably doesn’t jump to the top of your mind when thinking about all-time great left-handers. However, there was a stretch of time when Newhouser was unquestionably the best pitcher in baseball.
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Newhouser won back-to-back AL MVP awards in 1944 and 1945; only two other pitchers have ever won multiple MVP awards and no other pitcher has done it in consecutive seasons. Newhouser would follow that up with a second place AL MVP finish in 1946. During that three year run, Newhouser won 80 games, the most of any pitcher during a three year stretch since the start of World War II. During 1945 specifically, Newhouser turned in one of the greatest seasons for a pitcher ever. He won the pitching triple crown with 25 wins, 212 strikeouts, and a 1.81 ERA while accumulating 11.3 bWAR and leading the Tigers to a world championship.
He ranks low in strikeout ratio numbers on this list, but this is another product of his era. Newhouser led the league in SO/9 four times before turning thirty; easily enough to show that he could fool batters with the best of them. His 57.3 bWAR already amounted to a hall of fame career by an age when many others are still finding their feet in the league. Unfortunately, he would only accumulate 3.4 bWAR throughout the rest of his career.