The Greatest Pitchers of All Time

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.

powewr ,control,smarts. greatest met by far.

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.

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.

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.

avg 6.8 innings per start .big deal.

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.

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.

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

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?