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Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers is the best pitcher in Major League Baseball

In the last twenty years, five pitchers have achieved 23 wins or more during a single regular season. In 1996, John Smoltz won 24 for the Atlanta Braves. In ’99, Pedro Martinez won 23 for the Red Sox. The remaining three achieved the feat in 2002, with Randy Johnson and Curt Shilling taking 24 and 23 respectively for the Arizona Diamond Backs and Barry Zito winning 23 for the Oakland As. That is all. No one has done it since 2002. In this age of baseball, it’s a pretty big deal.

This season, there are two pitchers with a shot at it. New York Yankees pitcher C.C. Sabathia has won 16 of his 21 starts. He is slated to start another 8 games this regular season.If Sabathia keeps up his 76 percent win percentage, that will put him at 22 wins. Just shy of the mark. Detroit’s Justin Verlander has won 15 of his 20 starts. He is scheduled for nine more starts this regular season but will get ten if the race for the AL Central stays tight. Assuming he keeps up his 75 percent win percentage, he will finish with 21 or 22 wins.

Justin Verlander on 2/14/11 in Lakeland, Fla. By Chuck Welch via Flickr.

But here is the difference: Sabathia’s five losses are spread out equally over the entire season, and his ERA is holding relatively steady on a month-to-month basis. Thus, there is no reason to believe Sabathia will improve his win percentage over his remaining games. Verlander, though, is getting hot. Three of his five losses occurred in April, early in the season. More illustrative is his ERA. During the month of April, Verlander’s ERA was 3.5. In May it was 2.62. In June, Verlander dropped to a ridiculous .92. And then in July, he kept it low with a 1.99.

Sabathia is great. He has been great all season, and every indication is that he will continue to be great, dropping only one out of four games he pitches. But Verlander is on another level right now. His win percentage is lower than what he should be able to do for his remaining games. Don’t look now, but Verlander could very well achieve 23 wins this regular season, putting him with an elite group. He is the best pitcher in Major League Baseball.

For you Angels fans, Jared Weaver isn’t even in the conversation. Didn’t you see him get shelled by Ordonez and Guillen on Sunday?