Chicago Cubs: Ranking the Top 10 single-season pitching performances

The rich and storied Chicago Cubs franchise has seen its share of quality pitching. But let’s narrow it down to the truly impressive performances.

Since 1903, the Chicago Cubs have been a club fraught with many amazing arms. Sure, when you’ve existed as long as the franchise has, you’re bound to have found at least some top-of-the-line starting pitching. Over the last century-plus, this list of the team’s best all-time arms has only grown.

Many players have come through Chicago at some point or another. Some have stayed for a mere cup of coffee. Others have become an integral piece of the team, writing their own respective chapter in team lore. Finally, the last group includes those who have overstayed their welcome, only to be sheepishly filtered out never to grace the North Side again.

But instead of limiting the scope of our dive into team history, let’s focus instead on the best single-season starting pitching performances. There have been almost too many to count, but in this piece – as well as the subsequent follow-up – we’ll talk about names you’ve surely heard before and others that may have slipped out of memory.

Let’s begin with a name you’ve surely heard of – but one that hasn’t been relevant to the franchise on the diamond in more than a century.