Starting Pitcher Curt Schilling
I'm not here to discuss Curt Schilling's post-career and off-field antics. Yes, I know he's not a great guy, and that's putting it lightly, but even though he's a bad person, there's no doubt that he was a fantastic pitcher. He was one of the heroes of the Diamondbacks' 2001 World Series team and took home co-World Series MVP with fellow ace Randy Johnson.
Schilling pitched a league-leading 256.2 innings and worked to a 2.98 ERA, 3.11 FIP, and 1.08 WHIP. The veteran right-hander was allergic to walking batters. He had just a 3.8% walk rate but paired that with a healthy 28.7% strikeout rate. That combination of limiting walks and striking out batters led to a league-leading 7.51 K:BB ratio. The only real knock on Schilling's regular season was that he allowed home runs at a below-average rate. His 1.3 HR/9 was slightly worse than the average of 1.1 in 2001.
Schilling ended the 2001 season as one of baseball's best pitchers. He finished top ten in MVP voting and second in Cy Young voting. Diamondbacks fans probably were not too sad when Schilling finished second in CYA voting because Randy Johnson and his 372 strikeouts took home the award.
Schilling's baseball career can't be told without talking about his Postseason. In 2001, he pitched 48.1 innings and allowed six earned runs. His first three Postseason starts in the DS and CS were complete games. In his Game Seven start, Schilling pitched 7.1 innings, allowed just two earned runs, and struck out nine Yankees batters. None of the batters who reached base did so via a free pass.