Pitching is the name of the game. The New York Yankees have had more stellar position players than pitchers throughout their history, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been some outstanding seasons from the mound.
We recently covered the Yankees’ most impressive individual position player seasons by fWAR. It’s time to focus on pitchers, and we will find a few surprises on the list.
5. Tommy John, 1979 (6.9 fWAR)
How times change: in 1979, Tommy John pitched 276.1 frames and struck out just 3.62 hitters per nine innings. That K/9 would have you kicked out of the league in a hurry these days, but back then, it didn’t stop the left-hander from putting a 2.