Most K's Pitching Staffs

Well, another season is underway, so time to gear up with more useless/useful stats.

Here are the 15 highest strikeout totals for team pitching staffs, along with the teams top individuals.

1. 1404 2003 Cubs: 266 Kerry Wood, 245 Mark Prior, 171 Matt Clement, 168 Carlos Zambrano
2. 1346 2004 Cubs: 190 Matt Clement, 188 Carlos Zambrano, 151 Greg Maddux, 144 Kerry Wood, 139 Mark Prior
3. 1344 2001 Cubs: 217 Kerry Wood, 175 Jason Bere, 149 Kevin Tapani, 148 Jon Lieber
4. 1333 2002 Cubs: 217 Kerry Wood, 215 Matt Clement, 147 Mark Prior, 97 Joe Borowski
5. 1303 2002 D-backs: 334 Randy Johnson, 316 Curt Schilling, 120 Rick Helling, 112 Miguel Batista
6. 1297 2001 D-backs: 372 Randy Johnson, 293 Curt Schilling, 113 Byung-Hyun Kim
7. 1291 2003 D-backs: 194 Curt Schilling, 172 Brandon Webb, 142 Miguel Batista, 125 Randy Johnson, 113 Elmer Dessens
8. 1289 2003 Dodgers: 185 Kevin Brown, 177 Hideo Nomo, 141 Odalis Perez, 140 Kazuhisa Ishii, 137 Eric Gagne
9. 1282 2004 Astros: 218 Roger Clemens, 206 Roy Oswalt, 157 Brad Lidge
10. 1266 2001 Yankees: 214 Mike Mussina, 213 Roger Clemens, 164 Andy Petitte, 112 Ted Lilly
11. 1264 2008 Cubs: 187 Ryan Dempster, 184 Ted Lilly, 130 Carlos Zambrano, 114 Carlos Marmol
12. 1259 2001 Red Sox: 220 Hideo Nomo, 163 Pedro Martinez, 148 Tim Wakefield, 115 David Cone
13. 1256 2005 Cubs: 202 Carlos Zambrano, 188 Mark Prior, 136 Greg Maddux, 111 Glendon Rusch
14. 1250 2006 Cubs: 210 Carlos Zambrano, 90 Rich Hill, 81 Greg Maddux
15. 1245 1996 Braves: 276 John Smoltz, 181 Tom Glavine, 172 Greg Maddux, 100 Mark Wohlers

They are all from withing the last 13, swing-for-the-fences years: the top 14 are all from the last 8 years. With the exceptions of the 2003 Cubs (Wood-Prior) and the 2001 and 2002 Diamondbacks (R. Johnson-Schilling), the individual totals aren't that impressive--in these other cases it's the consistent 8-or-so-SO/9 IP guys down through the 10 or 12 man staff that makes the team numbers add up.

By the way, the pre-1996 record was 1221 by the 1969 Astros (235 Don Wilson, 232 Larry Dierker, 200 Tom Griffin, 173 Denny Lemaster).