Chicago Cubs: 25 best all-time players in franchise history

Chicago Cubs Greatest All-Time Players: No. 14 – Bill Hutchison

WAR: 43.2

Any time you’re going pre-1900 and looking at a guy’s numbers, it’s a wild ride. Hurler Bill Hutchison checks in at No. 15 on this list — but pitched for the Cubs for just seven years. Yet he’s ranked ahead of Hall of Famer Mordecai Brown.

Like I said, buckle up. It’s about to get wild.

Hutchison pitched for Chicago from 1889 to 1895. During that span, he racked up 3,022 1/3 innings of work. To put that in perspective, in Jon Lester’s entire 15 year career, he’s sitting at just over 2,500 innings. This guy was an absolute workhorse (although pitchers were of an entirely different breed back then).

Let’s hone in on his best three-year stretch. It culminated in 212 appearances, including 194 starts. He allowed just 1,584 hits in 1,786 innings of work. He was definitely a pitch-to-contact guy by today’s standards, but still worked to a 3.08 FIP and 2.76 ERA. He won 121 games – in three years.

In 1890, 1891 and 1892, the right-hander led the league in wins, games, innings pitched and complete games. Oh, that’s right. We didn’t really get into those numbers. Here are his complete game totals in those years.

• 1890: 65
• 1891: 61
• 1892: 67

I know the game was wildly different back then compared to what we all know today. But it’s pretty easy to see why we’re talking about Hutchison when we’re going through the best Cubs players of all-time.