As I've mentioned here many times, almost surely the two best starting pitchers of the first generation of WPK players are the Brewers own Cheol-han Lee and the Columbus Whaler's Jake Harris.
Like I earlier did with outfielders Ryan Rodgers and Travis Johnson, I thought it would be interesting to look at Lee and Harris in terms of their similarity scoring using the Bill James method.
Also like Rodgers and Johnson, there were some amazing likenesses in core stats for Lee and Harris. For instance, at this stage of their careers they have nearly identical career ERA's- with Cheol-han at 2.37 and Jake at 2.38. Their win-loss records are also quite close. Cheol-han currently stands at 159-82 while Jake Harris is a bit better at 162-78. (Harris has started 6 more games than Lee.)
But unlike Rodgers and Johnson, these similar stats did not mask deeper differences. In fact, Lee and Harris score at 960 on the James Similarity Score. Which means they are remarkably similar. And the biggest difference that counted against them on James' scale was handedness- Cheol-han is a rigthy while Harris is a southpaw.
Cheol-han's great stamina has led to him having quite a few more innings pitched (101 more) in spite of pitching six fewer games and also led to him having 115 complete games to Harris' 74 and 38 shutouts compared to Harris' 25. The two are nearly identical in walks allowed but Harris is the better strikeout pitcher (1823 to 1664.) Neither has ever pitched even an inning in relief. Harris will turn 36 before the end of this season while Lee turned 33 in January, so by the time their respective careers are over their numbers might be less similar and Cheol-han has a good chance to exceed Harris in many categories. Cheol-han still profiles as durable while Harris, who has experienced more injuries in his career but none keeping him out of action more than a week (Cheol-han has had exactly one injury in his career, experiencing back spasms that sidelined him for a week this current season), is thought to be in the normal range of injury propensity. Thus far in 1974 Cheol-han is having far more success with his 6-2 record and 2.43 ERA compared to Harris' 5-6, 3.81. The biggest difference for Harris in 1974 seems to be that his walk rate is up while his strikeout rate is down. His BABIP is pretty close to his career average but both his WHIP and FIP are quite a bit worse than his career norms.
As for Cheol-han in 1974, his BABIP is slightly lower than his norm and might indicate some luckiness on his part this season (though the reality is that the Brewers defense is particularly good this year, especially with Joe McPhillips manning center field and Ryan Rodgers moving to the corners of the outfield for most of his starts). Cheol-han's WHIP is very good and a bit below his career average but his FIP and FIP- are uncharacteristically high. Like Harris his strikeout rate is lower than usual but his BB/9 is even better than his career average, though he is giving up HR's at a slightly higher rate.
All in all, though, Cheol-han Lee and Jake Harris not only look like clearly the best right-handed starter and best left-handed starter of their time, but their careers at this point have been remarkably similar.