Seattle Mariners Top Ten Starting Pitchers in Franchise History

4. Hisashi Iwakuma

Wait a minute this can’t be right can it?  Number four all-time over all those other pitchers who have pitched so much more?  But he’s a current pitcher for the Mariners?  Yes, Hisashi Iwakuma has quietly been great and if you haven’t noticed, start taking notice.  If you don’t believe it now, you will when you finish reading this slide.

In Iwakuma’s four seasons with the Seattle Mariners he has won 47 games and lost 25.  During that tenure he earned a 3.17 ERA with a 1.082 WHIP and a whopping 4.34 strikeout to walk ratio.  He also had a 3.62 FIP.  He’s tallied 551 strikeouts while only walking 127.  He pitched the fifth no-hitter in Mariners history in 2015.  He has already earned a 13.9 in pitchers WAR.

In just a couple of years Hisashi has made several Mariners top ten all-time lists.  Keep in mind that the requirement is at least 500 innings pitched.  Hisashi qualifies with 653.2 innings pitched.  He’s already tenth in total wins for this team and ninth in pitchers WAR for the Mariners.  He ranks first in WHIP, second in ERA, and first in strikeout to walk ratio.  Did I mention these are rankings all-time versus every pitcher who has pitched for this team?  That’s a pretty good contribution so far.  He ranks second in win-loss percentage with .653.  He ranks second in the lowest amount of hits (7.986) given up per nine innings pitched and first in lowest amount of walks (1.749) per nine innings all-time.  He also ranks fourth in FIP.

If you didn’t notice how great Iwakuma has been for this team, you should now.  It may have been difficult to notice because you have Felix Hernandez also on your pitching staff.  But compared to all the pitchers the Mariners have had, he’s doing incredibly well.  If he is able to stay healthy he can quickly climb on this list.  He has put together a phenomenal Major League career so far.

Next: The Savvy Veteran