I keep having fun with the Bill James Starting Pitcher ranks. The rank logs now go from 1980 to 1999, a twenty year period. Today’s graph shows most days spent in the top five during that time.

Note that I am only including days during the active season. There is a rank every day of the year, and the scores of the pitchers decline with time off during the off season. That doesn’t really change the rankings. That just starts the season at a lower bound, so if someone has retired (or wasn’t re-signed), they won’t be in the top five very long.

Roger Clemens dominates the data, but right behind him is Nolan Ryan. The two have a great deal in common. Both are huge physical men from Texas. Both pitched into their 40s, remaining very effective. (Clemens may have gotten some help in that regard.)

You can also see the Hall of Fame case for Jack Morris in the data, although spending a lot of time in the top five doesn’t really correlate with a Hall of Fame election. David Cone, fifth on the list, was done after his first time on the ballot.

The Red Sox had a pretty good run bringing along pitchers in this era, as Bruce Hurst and John Tudor spent at least 175 days in the top five.