Head to head · Career pitching

Jon Lester vs Justin Verlander

In 2020 Jon Lester has been worth 0.3 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.

Two of the 25 most valuable pitching careers on this site, 2005–2026, by dbWAR.

Jon Lester CHC

Justin Verlander HOU

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.
Statistic	Jon Lester	Justin Verlander
G	452	557
GS	451	557
IP	2,740.0	3,576.2
W	200	266
L	117	159
SV	0	0
SO	2,488	3,560
BB	892	1,007
ERA	3.66	3.33
WHIP	1.28	1.14
K/9	8.2	9.0
BB/9	2.9	2.5
HR/9	1.0	0.9
WAR	45.0	72.9

2020 season

2020 pitching. The stronger figure in each row is highlighted — for ERA, FIP, WHIP and walks that is the lower one.
Statistic	Jon Lester	Justin Verlander
G	12	1
GS	12	1
IP	61.0	6.0
W	3	1
SO	42	7
ERA	5.16	3.00
FIP	5.14	5.69
WHIP	1.33	0.67
K/9	6.2	10.5
BB/9	2.5	1.5
FIP−	115	128
WAR	0.3	-0.0

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.
Statistic	Jon Lester	Justin Verlander
G	26	38
GS	22	37
IP	154.0	226.0
W	9	17
SV	0	0
SO	133	244
BB	40	74
ERA	2.51	3.58
WHIP	1.02	1.12
K/9	7.8	9.7
BB/9	2.3	2.9

Jon Lester’s full profile →Justin Verlander’s full profile →

More head to heads

The same seasons, measured against somebody else.

Jon Lester vs

Justin Verlander vs

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.