Greatest pitcher of all time?

Fair point on the walks, but I'd disagree on homers. He allowed an average of 11.8 homers per year. Considering that for the bulk of his career he was part of four-man rotations, that's not an exorbitant amount of homers.

 

Ryan's career ERA of 3.19 should also figure in. That puts him 244th all-time.

 

Yeah, he's the Tim Tebow of pitchers. Just go ahead and bronze him.

 

Several years ago I was combing through some newspapers from the 1920s for a project and came across an article about Walter Johnson's speed. For whatever reason it quoted a time in feet per second rather than miles per hour.
I did some quick calculations on the number. I'm no math whiz, so my calculations could have been a bit off, but the amazing number referenced in the article worked out to about 84 mph.

 

Ryan also pitched a good chunk of his career in a period when 35 homers often led the league. It was a much better time to be a pitcher than the last 20 years have been.

 

Nolan Ryan, on the other hand, was basically as good as the teams he pitched for...he didn't raise his teams up very much at all.

Ryan was 21-16 on the 1973 California Angels, a team that won 79 games. He won more than a quarter of his team's games. This was also the year he broke the single season record for strikeouts, and Jim Palmer won the Cy Young Award. Ryan deserved better.

 

Satchel Paige should get some consideration - pitching three scoreless innings in a major league game at age 59 should count for something.

Just as impressive would be Babe Ruth throwing two complete games (winning both) for the Yankees late in his career after several years away from the mound. The first one, in 1930, came nine years after his last mound appearance and 11 years after he was anything close to a regular pitcher.

Ruth only won 94 games as a pitcher, but he put up a .671 winning percentage and a career ERA of 2.28. That doesn't include a 3-0 record in the World Series, where his career ERA was 0.87.

 

You're right, my bad. Ryan gave up home runs to 1.4% of batters faced. MLB average over his career was 2.0%.

 

One game with the fate of the planet on the line: Sandy Koufax, and I don't even hesitate.

Roger Clemens can suck it.

 

I'm a Spahn fanboi, so there is your answer.