Whitey Ford is probably the best of the Yankees pitchers that include Allie Reynolds, Waite Hoyt, Herb Pennock, Carl Mays, Ed Lopat, Lefty Gomez, Red Ruffing, Ron Guidry, Vic Raschi, Mel Stottlemyre, David Cone, and David Wells. Catfish Hunter and Roger Clemens may be the greatest pitchers to have been Yankees, but Catfish had his best years in Oakland while Roger needed the Yankees to become part of a World Championship team, not the other way around.
Balanced, deep pitching staffs win championships. Since 1920, the Yankees have led the American in team earned run average 24 times. The Orioles, who have led in ERA 12 times, are second, but that is closer than it seems since the Orioles have existed only since 1954.
The 1920s were the first era of Yankees dominance. Starting pitchers included Carl Mays, who won 26 games in 1920 and 27 games the following year, Bob Shawkey, who won 20 games on three different occasions, and Jack Quinn, who was an 18 game winner in 1920. Waite Hoyt joined the staff the next year from the financially strapped Boston Red Sox.
The Yankees obtained Mays from their friends in Boston for two nondescript pitchers, purchased Shawkey's services from Philadelphia in 1915, and acquired Quinn after he had pitched for the White Sox. Quinn was a key because it was he who was used to get pitchers Joe Bush and Sam Jones from the friendly Bostonians. Bush won 26 games for the Yankees in 1922 while Jones was a 21 game winner in the Yankees first World Championship season of 1923.
Mays, Shawkey, Bush, Jones and Hoyt were among the top pitchers in the league, but they were at least a notch or two below contemporaries Walter Johnson and Grover Cleveland Alexander. The difference is that Yankees had better, more balanced pitching staffs than other teams so that in head to head competition, the Yankees pitching depth usually prevailed.
