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The Greatest Pitchers of All Time

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Rated 0 points - posted 15 years ago by pxc0 in category Sports.
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1.

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Tom Seaver Report Abuse
Led the league in strikeouts five times and won three Cy Young Awards on his way to more than 300 wins and 3,600 K's. Known as one of the most intense, studious pitchers to ever play.
84 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 - 2 comments
Comments:
see him pitch almost ever game he pitched for mets,never left seat when he was toeing the rubber ,only when hitless muts were up. my favorite player.
Added 14 years ago by guest, 0 points Vote + to improve this comment's ranking Vote - to decrease this comment's ranking
powewr ,control,smarts. greatest met by far.
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2.

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Christy Mathewson Report Abuse
43 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 -

3.

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Walter Johnson Report Abuse
Considered by many to be the greatest right-hander in baseball history, he was among the top three league leaders in strikeouts fifteen times, ERA twelve times and shutouts eleven times. Even more impressive, he accomplished these feats on some terrible Washington Senators teams.
43 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 - 1 comment
Comments:
Actually, the period from Clark Griffith becoming manager in 1912 through 1933 were the best Washington major league teams in history. Outside of that, including the National League teams of the 1890s and the present, Washington was always a hopeless dead-ender aside from a freak war year second-place finish in 1945, and Ted Williams winning Manager of the Year in 1969 for bringing the Nats in 4th. Yes, Johnson was part of that futility prior to 1912, but he was more of a piticher of promise who didn't fully blossom until the Senators became a consistent second-place team in 1912. In his career decline phase in the 1920s, Johnson's two remaining great years coincided with two Senator pennant winners. So Johnson's image as a great pitcher with hopeless teams is a bit of an exaggeration.
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4.

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Satchel Paige Report Abuse
34 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 -

5.

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Nolan Ryan Report Abuse
33 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 -

6.

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Lefty Grove Report Abuse
Grove pitched in the 1920s and 1930s, leading his league in ERA nine different times. Although he didn't pitch until he was 25, he still managed to win 300 games and post an amazing .681 winning percentage.
31 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 -

7.

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Sandy Koufax Report Abuse
21 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 - 1 comment
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That Koufax was a phenomenal pitcher is beyond dispute. However, Koufax did benefit from his era, his ballpark and manager's strategy swinging massively in his favor after 1962 (even if he missed the year of the pitcher). However, Lefty Grove had to pitch while the lively ball era was in full bloom, he was the only pitcher to win 300 games during that era (even with arriving late to the majors from the Baltimore Orioles). As mind-boggling as Koufax's five straight ERA titles were, Grove had nine over his career. Grove was 30 games better over a career than "great" (i.e., his contemporary Carl Hubbell, curiously missing from this list). Grove has to edge out Koufax as the greatest left-handed pticher the game has seen.
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8.

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Pedro Martinez Report Abuse
At six foot and 180 pounds, they said he was too small to be a power pitcher and his tiny frame would never hold up over the long haul. All Pedro did was turn around and have the most dominant decade of pitching the game had seen in 80 years. The right-hander won three Cy Young Awards and four ERA titles before the age of 31, in many of those years he was the single most feared man in baseball.
19 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 - 2 comments
Comments:
Well, to be fair, he didn't hold up under the long haul (poor Mets), but not before posting some of the greatest major league seasons in history. Like Lefty Grove, his brillance shines all the brighter because it was done in a hitting-happy era.
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avg 6.8 innings per start .big deal.
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9.

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Greg Maddux Report Abuse
The nerdy little guy with the ironic nickname, "Mad Dog" won four straight Cy Young Awards in the 1990s. Four times in his career he posted an ERA two runs below his league's average, and he won at least 15 games in 16 consecutive seasons.
19 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 -

10.

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Cy Young Report Abuse
18 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 - 1 comment
Comments:
If talking career than peak value--it speaks for itself that Cy Young ranks first, Walter Johnson, and Alexander and Matthewson tied for third in total wins. Bill James' analysis in determining which of the four were the greatest of all time makes sense: Cy Young had longevity and consistency, but not the dominance of the other three; Matthewson had dominance and consistency, but not the longevity of the other three; Alexander had the dominance and longevity, but not the consistancy of the other three; so Johnson should be considered the greatest for having longevity, dominance and consistency.
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11.

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Warren Spahn Report Abuse
18 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 - 1 comment
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The Cy Young of the post WWII era, both ptichers came to the majors late and put in a couple decades before breaking down after age 42. Never the best pitcher of any individual year in their eras, they both rolled out good winning seasons year-after-year like an assembly line.
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12.

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Bob Feller Report Abuse
18 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 -

13.

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Jim Palmer Report Abuse
3 Cy Youngs (and another 5 top 5 finishes in the voting), career 2.86 ERA, Career Winning Percentage of .638, led the league in innings pitched 4 times. Never gave up a grand slam or back-to-back home runs, despite pitching nearly 4,000 innings.
17 points - added 14 years ago by guest -

14.

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Grover Cleveland Alexander Report Abuse
17 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 -

15.

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Bob Gibson Report Abuse
17 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 - 1 comment
Comments:
how is Gibson not higher? all he did was be so dominant they lowered the mound so another pitcher couldn't dominate like he did
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16.

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Steve Carlton Report Abuse
16 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 -

17.

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Randy Johnson Report Abuse
15 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 -

18.

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clayton kershaw Report Abuse
3 straight era's under 2... he sould be in the top 10
1 point - added 10 years ago by guest -

19.

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Robin Roberts Report Abuse
-2 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 -

20.

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Phil Niekro Report Abuse
-2 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 - 1 comment
Comments:
In a short period in the later 1960s, you had Niekro, Seaver, Carlton, Palmer and Ferguson Jenkins (not listed here) breaking into the major leagues, along with others of note coming at that or just before and after such as Ryan, Tommy John, and Don Sutton--I wonder if the majors ever enjoyed this kind of influx of young pitching greatness at one time?
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21.

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Mordecai Brown Report Abuse
-6 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 -

22.

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Roger Clemens Report Abuse
-13 points - added 15 years ago by pxc0 -
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