On one of our signature national holidays fans of our national pastime were gifted one of the great early-season pitching matchups in recent years when the best pitcher of the last several years, Tim Lincecum, battled the without-question best pitcher of this year thus far, Colorado Rockies' Ubaldo Jimenez. It turned out to be something of an anticlimax, however, as the Rockies, won 4-0.  

Jimenez pitched brilliantly in his complete game shutout, gaining his 10th victory of the year before June (with a legitimate shot at 15 by the All-Star break) and lowering his insanely low ERA to a ridiculously microscopic 0.78. The Dominican native also extended his scoreless streak to 26 innings. Indeed, a start to a year nearly unparalleled.

For Lincecum, who couldn't make it through six innings, the whispers about his sudden and unsettling loss of form will undoubtedly turn to screams. All Giants fans hope his troubles the last several weeks will work themselves out before the Giants fall too far behind in the NL West.

So with Jimenez bolstering his already gaudy stat line, this is as good a time as any to look back at some of the most dominant pitching years of the last 50 years. With one-third of the season finished, Jimenez currently has both his ERA and WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) below 1.00. To illustrate how truly stellar Jimenez's start to the 2010 campaign has been, the last pitcher to have an ERA under 1.00 through his first 10 starts was Juan Marichal for the Giants in 1965.

Measuring dominance in pitching can take many forms but I believe the two stats that are most telling of a pitcher's command over their opponents is a mixture of the old and new stats; ERA and WHIP - as one is macro, measuring a pitcher's effect over the course of an entire season and the other micro, which provides a more detailed view within a game. 

And then there's the strikeout. Though an out is an out no matter how they are attained there is no more powerful a tool - both in result and in terms of an intimidation factor -  at a pitcher's disposal than the K. With the ball not entering the field of play, taking away the chance of an error, the strikeout is the "safest" out. In addition, for a batter who is cognizant of a pitcher's ability to induce whiffing, there is also an increased tendency to swing with greater urgency earlier in the count, reducing pitch count.

Of course, some strikeout pitchers don't possess especially good control and walk many batters, reducing the effectiveness of the strikeout. But, with the rarest of exceptions, the overwhelming majority of the greatest pitchers of all time have been strikeout artists.

Over the last 50 years there have been only 10 pitchers to have completed a season with an ERA below 2.00 and a WHIP below 1.00. Three pitchers have done it more than once - Sandy Koufax, Pedro Martinez and Greg Maddux. Included on the list are the obvious suspects - the aforementioned plus Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver, etc. But there are also a few names left out that one would have expected to find, namely Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens. Perhaps the one surprise name is that of the vastly underrated and underappreciated Vida Blue, the former Oakland A's star, who may be the best pitcher with 200 victories not in the Hall of Fame.

Here are the most dominating pitching seasons of the last 50 years:

PITCHER          YEAR         ERA         WHIP       SO         SO/BB       SHO

Koufax                  1963            1.89            .87            306            5.27            11           

Koufax                  1964            1.74            .93            223            4.20            7

Koufax                  1966            1.73            .98            317            4.11            5

McLain                 1968            1.96            .90            280            4.44            6

Gibson                  1968            1.12            .85            268            4.32            13

Blue                      1971            1.82            .95            301            3.42            8

Seaver                  1971            1.76            .95            289            4.74            4           

Carlton                 1972            1.97            .99            310            3.56            8

G. Perry                1972            1.98            .98            234            3.11            5

Guidry                  1978            1.74            .95            248            3.44            9

Gooden                1985            1.53            .97            268            3.88            8

Maddux                1994            1.56            .90            156            5.02            3

Maddux                1995            1.63            .81            181            7.87            3

Martinez               1997            1.90            .93            305            4.55            4

Martinez               2000            1.74            .74            284            8.88            4

* If one were forced to choose the best three of these years, I'd go with Gibson in 1968, Koufax in 1963 and Martinez in 2000.

* The 8.88 K/BB ratio for Martinez in 2000 is an utterly frightening stat. Never before had there been such a combination of power and control so ruthlessly displayed. And considering Pedro's best years were during the absolute height of the steroid era is more evidence of his dominance.

* Maddux is the only non-strikeout pitcher on the list but his superb ratios made up for his lack of firepower.

* Shutouts were obviously more common before the 1980s when the closer became exponentially more important. Still, Gibson's 13 shutouts was a remarkable achievement.

Now it'd be irrational and foolish to expect Jimenez to continue at his torrid pace. But even if he pitches close to the level he's maintained through the first two months, we're likely witnessing one of the finest pitching campaigns of the modern era.