DataBaseball
2026

Head to head · Career pitching

Cole Hamels vs Max Scherzer

In 2020 Max Scherzer has been worth 1.5 more wins. Both lines are computed from play-by-play on the same constants, so they are measured the same way rather than quoted from two sources.

Career

Totalled over the seasons published here, which is not the same as a whole career: a player who debuted before 2005 begins at 2005, not at his real first game.

Career pitching totals. ERA, WHIP and the per-nine rates are recomputed from the components rather than averaged; FIP needs each season’s own constant and is left to the season table.
StatisticCole HamelsMax Scherzer
G423501
GS422492
IP2,698.03,047.2
W163225
L122126
SV00
SO2,5603,557
BB767814
ERA3.433.29
WHIP1.181.09
K/98.510.5
BB/92.62.4
HR/91.01.1
WAR47.366.4

2020 season

2020 pitching. The stronger figure in each row is highlighted — for ERA, FIP, WHIP and walks that is the lower one.
StatisticCole HamelsMax Scherzer
G112
GS112
IP3.167.1
W05
SO292
ERA8.103.74
FIP2.893.46
WHIP1.201.38
K/95.412.3
BB/92.73.1
FIP−6578
WAR0.11.6

Postseason

Box-score figures only: October is kept out of the season constants, so there is no wOBA, FIP or dbWAR for it.

Every published postseason, pitching, summed with the rates recomputed from the counts.
StatisticCole HamelsMax Scherzer
G1733
GS1628
IP100.1157.1
W78
SV01
SO93182
BB2762
ERA3.413.78
WHIP1.101.16
K/98.310.4
BB/92.43.5

More head to heads

The same seasons, measured against somebody else.

How these are computed

FIP uses the constant solved from this season’s own runs, and FIP− is park-adjusted against the same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page. To put these two beside a third, the comparison page takes up to four.